LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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TESTIMONIALS. 



The originals of the following Testimonials, as well as others 
from parties equally well known, are in the possession of 
Armstrong Archer, who will he happy in showing them to 
any persons who may be interested in the details respecting 
the condition of the slave population in the United States, 
which, from personal knowledge, he is enabled to relate. He 
hopes, by the publication of this small work, to contribute 
something towards keeping alive that sympathy for his suffer- 
ing brethren yet remaining in bonds, whose condition is rather 
aggravated than ameliorated by the noble and Christian con- 
duct of England in emancipating the whole of her slave 
population. 



CERTIFICATES OF HIS CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 



This is to certify that at the request of the Zion Baptist Church, 
in the city of New York, under the pastoral care of elder J. T. 
Raymond, on the thirtieth day of January, one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-seven, the bearer hereof, Armstrong Archer, 
was by us regularly ordained, and set apart to the office of the 
gospel minister of the particular Baptist denomination ; and we do 
hereby recommend him as a regular, sound, and faithful minister 
of the gospel, to the attention, fellowship, and Christian love of all 
the churches of our denomination in particular, to the notice and 
respect of all ministers and other Christians of every denomina- 
tion, to the protection of all magistrates, and to the respectful 
acceptance o mankin d in general; hoping that he will be kindly 



COMPENDIUM OF SLAVERY, 



AS IT EXISTS IN THE PRESENT DAY 

IN THJS 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

TO "WHICH IS PREFIXED , 

A brief view of the Author's descent from an African king on one side, and from the 
celebrated Indian Chief Powhattan on the other; in which he refers to the principal 
transactions and negotiations between this noble chief and the English colony under 
the famous Captain Smith, on the coast of Virginia, in the year 1608, as well as to his 
still more illustrious daughter, the Princess Pocahontas? who excited so much 
interest in England. 



BY ARMSTRONG ARCHER. 



LONDON : 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

PRINTED 3Y 

J. HADDON, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY. 

1844. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 

Narrative of the Author's father 5 

Powhattan Indians 11 

King Powhattan • . . . . . • . . 12 
First English colony in Virginia . . . . . . 12 

Captain Smith 13 

Pocahontas saving the life of Smith 18 

Her marriage with Rolfe ...... 21 

Her visit to England . . . . . . .21 

Her reception at the court of St. James . . . 21 
Return of her son to Virginia 22 



SLAVERY. 



Narrative of the Rev. Horace Moulton 24 

Labour of the slaves 25 

Food of the slaves « . . 26 

Houses .... 28 

Clothing 29 

Punishments 30 

Runaways 34 

Condition of the slaves, according to C. C. Robin . . . .36 

Plantations, according to Rev. F. Hawley . . 38 

Clothing . . 40 



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CONTENTS. 



Tortures by iron collars, chains, fetters, hand-cuffs, &c. . . 43 

Testimony of Mr. H. P. Thompson 47 

Mr. E. Birdseye 49 

Brandings, mainings, gun-shot wounds, &c 51 

Floggings 53 

Cropping 58 

Mutilation of teeth 59 

Testimony of Rev. A. Brown 61 

Dr. F. J. Le Moyne 62 

Hon. J. K. Paulding, secretary of the Navy, XL S. . 62 

Rev. Horace Moulton 63 

Cat-hauling 63 

Punishment of women 64 

Testimony of Rev. Phineas Smith .64 

Murder of a slave . . .... . 65 

Bloody execution of innocent slaves 65 

Testimony of Arthur Tappan 66 

Rev. George Bourne 67 

Mr. Joel S. Bingham 67 

Mr. Hiram White 68 

Rev. Francis Hawley . . , . • . 68 



INTRODUCTION. 



In dedicating the following pages to the people of Great 
Britain and Ireland, I trust that their sympathy with the 
oppressed and degraded Africans, in their present state of 
slavery throughout the southern regions of the United States 
of America, will overlook the imperfections of an humble 
education, as well as appreciate my motives for thus ap- 
pearing so publicly before them. I must, however, avow 
that the intelligence and humanity of this enlightened nation 
have alone encouraged and induced me to offer this tribute 
of respect to so illustrious and magnanimous an empire. 

With due regard and respect for all the true, candid, and 
fearless representations which have already been made by 
the abolitionists, both of the old and new world, respecting 
this monstrous and antichristian system of servitude, bondage, 
and kidnapping, I humbly beg leave to add a few of my own 
personal observations to the dark calendar of iniquities, 
which cast an indelible stain on the national character of 
this proud and free republic of the nineteenth century. 

While I disclaim any pecuniary considerations on my own 
part, or any ungrateful prejudice against the land of my 
nativity, I feel myself fully justified by the principles of 
humanity and jcharity, in contributing my mite towards the 
exposure of so barbarous a traffic in human flesh and bones. 
This slavery, the abolishing of which is indispensable to the 
prosperity of the republic, and to the union of the Northern 
and Southern states, has of late years attracted not only the 
attention of the more civilized and powerful nations of 
Europe, but also the sober consideration and legislative 
pleading of some of the most eloquent and eminent states- 
men in the Union, whose talents, respectability, and influence, 
have often been on the eve of demolishing this execrable 

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system, and destroying the horrid monster, whose deformity 
must be for ever branded on the foreheads of slaveholders. 

The daily occurrences which presented themselves to my 
observation during a residence of twenty-five years in my 
native Virginia, the most bloodthirsty and slave breeding 
state in all the union, have indeed enabled me to become 
acquainted with slavery both in its greatest lenity and its most 
atrocious severity, though, on the present occasion, it is far 
from being my intention to enter into a detail of its various 
and innumerable forms. Suffice it to say here, that there 
never was a Nero, or an autocrat of Russia, or yet an em- 
peror of Turkey, that could cope with the haughty and arro- 
gant Virginians, or devise more excruciating tortures for the 
most hideous malefactor. Ever since I arrived at the years 
of discretion, I have cherished within my afflicted bosom a 
constant desire of publishing these abominations, which, must 
sooner or later, call down the vengeance of heaven on a 
proud but blind and stubborn nation. If, therefore, these 
my humble efforts can in any way tend to the discharge of 
my duty towards my suffering countrymen, I shall consider 
the undertaking the proudest act of my mortal career. 

The advocates of freedom, liberty, and justice, who must 
for ever be the opponents of slavery, have within these three 
or four years, been greatly retarded in the sacred cause of 
abolition, by the American Colonization Society, which has 
enlisted on its side, almost an invincible force of talent, 
wealth, and influence. The Colonization scheme, indeed, is 
represented by these false friends of the slave as the most 
laudable and praiseworthy measure that can, consistently 
with the safety of the nation, be adopted for the redemption 
and happiness of the people of colour in^general. 

Restoring the kidnapped Africans, those ill-gotten goods 
and stolen chattels, to their native soil, is consideied by the 
Society the only retribution which the blacks can receive at 
the hands of the whites. If these Africans, however, had 
of their own accord left their country to dwell on American 
shores, where perhaps they could not subsist, and were 
consequently necessitated to retrace their steps towards their 
native clime, the colonization advocates' plan might ex- 
hibit some plausibility in their designs, some reason in their 
arguments, and some logic instead of sophistry. But 
such is not the case with my oppressed countrymen in 



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America, who have been feloniously stolen, and most brutally 
dragged from their own firesides, from their fathers and 
mothers, from their brothers and sisters, and sometimes from 
the dearest of all, their beloved children, to cherish in the 
lap of luxury their mortal foes, the incarnate demons of the 
slaveholding states. 

As far as the Colonization Society has as yet operated, 
very little good has been done ; and the only benefits that 
can be derived from it are evidently conferred on the free 
people of colour, for it has no immediate control over 
slavery. Some thousands of coloured people emigrate yearly 
to settle on the coagt of Africa, many of whom are glad 
enough to return, after having consumed to no purpose 
the small capital which they had brought with them. Be 
this, however, as it may, the poor slaves are still in 
bondage, and their sufferings are not yet removed by the 
clemency of the Colonization Society. 

Missionaries are sent out to the African settlements, who, 
because they thus happen to procure for themselves and 
families a comfortable living, never fail to represent in the 
most glowing and captivating colours, the prosperity of the 
colony, greatly to the detriment and injury of the holy cause 
of abolition. I do not say, indeed, that all these pious and 
clerical gentlemen are guilty of the same misdemeanor ; but 
such unfortunately is too often the case. 

In place, therefore, of working for the abolition of slavery, 
and relieving the distressed slaves, the Colonization Society 
has, in my opinion, a contrary tendency; inasmuch as the 
minds of the American public are at the present moment 
resting on the belief that the emancipation of the slave is 
sufficiently guaranteed by the colonization scheme, which 
affects only those who are already free. It injures them 
likewise in a most serious manner, by enticing and inducing 
them to leave the country of their adoption, and dispose of 
considerable property, which they often accumulate in the 
United States, in order to conform very foolishly with 
the objects of the Colonization Society. Many of these 
duped creatures have I myself seen return from the scorching 
shores of Africa, pouring out freely their curses on their 
seducers. 



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A COMPENDIUM OF SLAVERY. 



Prior to my observations on slavery, I have thought 
proper to commence with my father's narrative, and follow 
with a short history of the famous Powhattan, from whom I 
am lineally descended. In pursuing this course, my motives 
are merely, in the first place, to show the vile and impious 
stratagem to which the kidnappers had recourse in stealing a 
whole cargo of persons, the leading members of two powerful 
tribes, including their repective kings, from the coast of 
Africa, about the year 1784; and, in the next place, to 
establish my claims on the sympathy and patronage of 
Englishmen, by the memorable services which the illustrious 
Pocahontas rendered the first English colony that settled in 
Virginia. 

Although I am well aware of the vanity of many people, 
in all ages and in all countries, who have spent both time 
and means in tracing through dark and remote ages, their 
origin from an illustrious ancestry, in order thereby to esta- 
blish their noble descent from kings or princes, yet it cannot 
be denied, but every person should be, in some measure, 
acquainted with the history of his forefathers. The more 
we study the history of our own country and that of our 
progenitors, the better we shall know ourselves. Such 
knowledge is both honourable and useful. But as there are 
some who foolishly imagine, that their own personal cha- 
racter should, as a matter of course, be honoured and en- 
nobledj through the deeds of heroes or the martial achieve- 
ments of rapacious kings* while they themselves are utterly 
void of preeminent and virtuous qualities, which leaves them 
without any real merit of their own, 1 hope I shall not for 
a moment be suspected of aiming at so vain a glory. 

With regard to the history of my African forefathers, it 
cannot reasonably be expected that I can throw any ray of 



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light on a people so obscure on the pages of history, so 
hidden from the researches of the curious ; so simple in the 
hands of nature, and so neglected by the hand of art, that 
the biography of an African would seem to carry with it 
little or no interest among their more favoured brethren of 
the human race. This is the case particularly in slave 
countries, where the intellectual and moral faculties of 
coloured people are not allowed to develope themselves, 
however excellent may be their natural endowments, so that 
they are thus unfortunately prevented from receiving the 
least stimulus from cultivation or refinement. This is cer- 
tainly no less than denying, before the face of heaven, the 
bounties of a munificent God, who, we are informed, has 
no respect to persons. 

As the subject of the following pages is slavery, and as 
nothing is dearer to me, except the author of my existence, 
than the memory of my ancestors, who also tasted the bitter 
fruits of bondage and servitude, I shall now relate the cir- 
cumstances which led to the captivity of my grandfather, 
received from my father, whose veracity was never questioned, 
while there are also many living witnesses at this day, who 
can bear testimony to the truth of the story. 



1. MY FATHERS NARRATIVE. 

At the age of fourteen, about the year 1784, when the 
slave trade was carried on with its usual fury in that part 
of Africa called Guinea, which comprises several thousand 
miles of the sea coast, and extends into the interior for the 
distance of four or five weeks' journey, thereby including 
within its boundaries innumerable kingdoms and princi- 
palities, I fell a victim to the intrigues of wily kidnappers. 
The place of my nativity, Kamao, which derived its name 
from a certain delicious fruit abounding most plentifully in 
that province, was indeed very fertile in all that might con- 
tribute to a comfortable and happy subsistence, and few 
were the cares of my youthful days. Our plantations were 
promiscuous ; our rising and lying down had no fixed hours ; 



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our liberties were not confined and limited between master 
and slave, for such unchristian sounds never grated our ears. 
Nature alone was our guide and ruler, and its dictates were 
the mandates of reason. As men are not, however, born 
alike, or endowed with an equality of talents and a same- 
ness of thoughts and ideas, it naturally follows that a society 
of men, however rude, as long as they are possessed of 
reason, and live together, should, on finding their affairs 
tending to confusion, in proportion to their increase, be led, 
if not instinctively, at least by habits of obedience, to refer 
their differences to some common head ; who, in the process 
of time, would thus become their sovereign or king. In this 
simple and natural way men are wont to obtain, in my 
country, that princely power, which is generally hereditary 
among them. 

This regal authority, my father often told me, had been 
retained and enjoyed in his family for many years. My 
father's name was Komasko, and he could repeat the names 
of many of his royal ancestors with great ease, and he appeared 
to delight in reiterating their exploits, and dwelling on their 
respective characteristics. 

While one of the slave-ships awaited the completion of 
her cargo of human chattels on the coast of Guinea, my 
father had just concluded a treaty with one of the neigh- 
bouring kings for the suppression of the slave-trade within 
their territories, which, as was now too evident, began to 
depopulate the countries around, and diminish the physical 
strength of their respective states. It was not until they 
saw themselves almost unable to defend their country against 
hostile invasions, that their eyes were opened to the fatal con- 
sequences of selling their own flesh and blood, their country- 
men, and dearest friends, to strangers, for little or no value. 
In this state of affairs, particularly in that section of the 
coast of Guinea to which my father's country was contiguous, 
the slave-trade received for a moment a merited check, which 
threatened its entire abolition in those districts. 

The policy and the craftiness of the whites were not, how- 
ever, to be thus bafHed, and many indeed were the measures 
to which they had recourse before they had accomplished 
their fiendish designs. About three days' journey from the 
sea dwelt the two allied tribes of whom I now speak, and 
whose fate I shall always mourn, as well as that direful doom 



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from which I extricated myself not many years since. As 
human nature is always weak, and always liable to err, the 
simplicity and credulity of my fathers ally soon yielded to the 
artifices, persuasions, and fine promises of the slave-hunters. 
Some natives were at length sent up the country, loaded with 
presents for the two leagued chiefs, assuring them that the 
strangers were no other than a friendly power arrived on their 
coasts, for the sole purpose of exterminating the slave-trade, 
which proved so destructive to their countrymen. The chiefs 
were particularly requested to appear on the sea coast with- 
out delay in order to ratify a treaty for the abolition of the 
slave-trade, where they might also take along with them as 
many fighting men as would appear to them requisite for 
their personal safety, in case they suspected the friendly 
intentions of the foreigners. 

Trusting in their own strength, as well as in the integrity 
and honour of those from whom they had received the most 
solemn assurances of fidelity and friendship, the two chief- 
tains set out for the coast, attended by forty or fifty of their 
bravest warriors, armed with their native weapons, and de- 
termined to frustrate any malicious plots, if any thing of the 
kind had been conceived against their liberties. On the 
fourth day after their departure from home, from which 
they were destined to be for ever separated, they arrived 
on the shores of the great waters. Their arrival was hailed 
as a fit occasion for feasting, dancing, and all other merri- 
ments, and of drinking the most intoxicating liquors that 
could be distilled or adulterated for the destruction of the 
simple Africans. My father and the allied chief were first 
received on board the fatal ship, Penelope, where they 
experienced the most signal marks of generosity and hospi- 
tality. Thus pleased, they, poor unwary creatures, without 
hesitation, and at the urgent request of their dissembling 
hosts, made signal to their attendants to join them in their 
festivities, with which their followers immediately complied. 

As each boarded the Penelope, for this was the name of 
the slaver, he was politely told to deliver up his arms until 
they were ready to land again, the ship being at this time 
about a mile from the shore. For some time every thing 
promised fair for the ensnared Africans. But, alas ! their 
doom was already sealed. Their liberties were now lost in a 



8 



dream of pleasure, from which they were to awake only to 
witness the enormity of human atrocities, to behold their 
final captivity , to subsist on the bitter fruits of their own 
credulity, and to feel the iron shackles with which their 
friendly hosts had bound them hand and foot. No sooner 
did the poisonous draught lay them senseless on their 
back, than the blood-thirsty traitors pounced on their helpless 
prey, to embrue their hands in the innocent blood of their 
fellow-men. 

Thus ended the memorable treaty of 1784 on board of the 
tragic Penelope, that ill-fated ship which, with all hands on 
board, was lost on the same coast two years afterwards, 

My thoughts, although young, could not be otherwise than 
strange, respecting this sudden change in our condition. 
The innocent sports of a country life were in a moment con- 
verted into the most hideous groans of lamentation. Chris- 
tian fortitude, which is the only comfort of a slave, was 
unknown to us then, so that we could not expect the 
least consolation from this source. The ferocious aspect and 
the indignant expressions of the crew, who so lately were 
mild and pleasant, have to this day been indelibly impressed 
on my mind. The roaring of the tempest, and the cruel lash 
so freely applied to our naked bodies, seemed to deprive us 
of reason. My father remarked to one of his shackled 
neighbours that this was a doom which they long ago de- 
served, for having, on former occasions, betrayed so many 
of their countrymen into the hands of their present op- 
pressors. But this observation threw their afflicted souls 
into still deeper despair. 

Among the crew of the Penelope there was an Englishman 
of the name of Johnson, a young man of prepossessing ap- 
pearance, and whose heart was more tender and compassionate 
than that of any of his companions. By motions he sig- 
nified as much as to make us understand that he would not 
visit Africa any more for the same purpose. If the prayers 
of persecuted souls can avail any thing on this side of the 
grave, I &m confident that Johnson must have altered his course 
of life, and repented of his barbarous career. Our grateful 
hearts never ceased to wish him a long and prosperous life, 
for the many acts of benevolence and humanity which he 
rendered us in our captivity. The favours, however, which 



9 



this interesting young man conferred on us were scarcely 
ever observed by his companions. Although his kind atten- 
tion to our comfort could not relieve our miseries, still we 
cherished a fond hope of finding others of the same friendly 
and tender disposition at the place of our destination. This 
expectation alone, I must acknowledge, contributed more to 
our existence, than any quantity of food that could be 
placed before us. 

Such indeed was the cruelty of our treatment, and the 
depression of spirits among my chained countrymen, that out 
of one hundred and twenty only eighty-four survived. Our 
calamitous situation led us to think that all would perish in 
the same manner before we could come to the end of our 
journey. The minds of some were already made up to meet 
the most painful death, rather than to bear any longer their 
iron bonds, with which their necks and legs were so heavily 
loaded. After five weeks' torture and stormy weather, we 
came at last in sight of the island of St. Domingo. Having 
landed, we soon perceived that our dark and lacerated 
bodies commanded a much higher value than the toys and 
gewgaws for which Africans had frequently sold each other 
in their own country. 

For three days after our arrival we were treated in rather 
a handsome manner, well clad, well fed, and congratulated 
on our happy lot. We were told to be cheerful and merry, 
which would soon secure for us good masters. Accord- 
ingly, the day arrived for the sale of the innocent victims. 
No sooner had the grand master of ceremonies, the auctioneer, 
mounted his rostrum, and introduced us to our white brethren 
as the most tractable, amiable, peaceable, and robust negroes 
that ever crossed from African shores, than the examination 
of the human frame commenced, in which those butchers 
displayed considerable skill, and would seem to have ac- 
quired some knowledge of anatomy. Thus we were handled 
and surveyed from the crown of the head to the sole of the 
foot, like cattle in the market-place. Sometimes, indeed, we 
might have considered ourselves highly flattered with the com- 
pliments which were paid us, if we had not foreseen our final 
destination. At first the volubility of the auctioneer's 
tongue impressed us with the idea that he was himself either 
mad, or pretended to be so for the amusement of his audience. 
We had not, however, indulged in this imagination long, 



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when we saw ourselves disposed of, perhaps never to meet 
again. The auctioneer held our destinies in his hands, and 
his little hammer appeared to have always the last word to 
say ; and as his hammer ceased to strike, so our doom was 
for ever sealed. Thus ended our fate in the drama of sale — 
the master-piece of human wickedness. 

To make this sad story short, I have now only to say, that 
my father and I were sold to the same master, with whom 
we lived for ten years, when ray father died, after having 
made a sincere and public profession of Christianity for 
several years before his death. Our masters name was 
Pierre Bouchereaux, a Frenchman, of considerable wealth, 
both in slaves and landed property. Peace be to his soul, 
for he was kind and a humane friend to his African slaves. 
A few days before my father died, he requested of Mr. 
Bouchereaux, as the last favour, to set me free, which would 
make his last hours easy, and comfort him in his journey 
to everlasting life. As we were both favourites in the mas- 
ter's family, the prayers of my dying father were at once 
granted. 

Immediately on my release from the bonds of servitude, I 
betook myself to the state of Virginia, in the United States. 
In the course of four or five years, being free, I accumulated 
some property. Finding myself somewhat comfortable in 
my circumstances of life, I married an Indian woman, one 
of the lineal descendants of king Powhattan, whose name 
was Tee-can-opee. 

Such is a brief sketch of the history of my grandfather, 
who, as is evident, was shamefully dragged from his native 
soil. With him they also kidnapped my father, then only a 
boy; he is my author for what has just been related. In 
accordance with the proposed plan of this pamphlet, I shall 
now refer briefly to the history of the Powhattan tribe of 
Indians, whose chief, the celebrated king Powhattan, as well 
as his still more illustrious daughter Pocahontas, and his 
renowned brother Opechancanough, are identified with the 
early transactions of the first English colony that settled in 
Virginia. Being myself directly descended by my mother's 
side from this extraordinary man, who was scarcely ever 
equalled by any other Indian chief, either in ancient or 
modern times, in regard to the influence and reputation 



11 



which he enjoyed among his countrymen far and wide, as 
well as the intellect and energy which he always displayed, 
I feel convinced that a short notice of this celebrated family 
will not be uninteresting. In doing this I have consulted 
the most authentics sources of information that can throw 
any light on the history of Powhattan ; among these are 
the noted Captain Smith, the superintendent and governor 
of the first English settlement in Virginia — Jefferson's notes 
on Virginia — Thatcher's Indian Biography — and Stith's 
History. 



II. THE POWHATTAN INDIANS — POCAHONTAS. 

It is not my intention to enter into any detail of the his- 
tory of the Powhattans, but merely to notice the state of 
that noble tribe when first discovered by Europeans, their 
dealings and transactions with the English colonists, and the 
remarkable conduct of Pocahontas towards Captain Smith 
and his companions, her marriage finally with Rolfe, and her 
visit to England. Hence the reader may conceive some 
idea of the national character of those barbarous and uncul- 
tivated tribes in their most simple state of nature, on the one 
side, and see the perils and difficulties which their visitors 
encountered in establishing a permanent settlement in Vir- 
ginia, on the other. 

To those who are acquainted with the history of the North 
American Indians, it is very well known that the Powhattan 
confederacy once ruled the destinies of that portion of the 
United States which is now called Virginia. This was once 
the seat of freedom and liberty, where the warriors scarcely 
knew the bounds of their hunting grounds; and little indeed 
did they dream that those vast and lofty forests would ever 
become the nursery of slaves, and the luxuriant domains of 
their ferocious masters. Many years have not elapsed since 
the Indians, as well as the scar-branded Africans, were in 
these their native regions hunted by bloodhounds, as they 



12 



are at the present day scoured from the Floridas, This 
is certainly a sad tale in the history of the aborigines 
of America, and shows the instability of human affairs. 
The proud and haughty Indians, those hereditary princes 
of the American soil, are driven from their lawful homes 
to the utmost extremities of the far west, there to content 
themselves for only a short period of time, when finally they 
must seek, as the last asylum, the shores of Asia, whence 
they first sprang, and migrated across Behring's straits to 
the western continent. In a few centuries from hence, the 
red men of America will live only on the pages of history ; 
for, whenever the population of the United States increases 
so as to require new settlements and more territories, the 
ill-fated aborigines, like the trees of the forest at the pro- 
gress of agriculture, disappear as beings who were only 
known to the historian. But what cannot the hand of power 
effect, when ambition and avarice have the sole control of the 
human heart — when the dictates of reason are completely 
overpowered by a violent and blind love of theft, rapine, and 
plunder ? Where such crimes are the ruling passions of a 
nation, where can the honesty, honour, and religion of the 
people be ? The present treatment of the Indians through- 
out the southern states of America is sufficient to answer 
this question. It must for ever be a disgrace on the go- 
vernment of the democratic Van Buren to have had re- 
course to bloodhounds in order to terminate the Florida war, 
against a handful of Indians, who, it would appear, could 
not be vanquished by fair fighting. 

I have made these few observations merely to show that 
the Indians have been most shamefully abused, by a people 
who boast so loudly of being the only free nation on earth ! 
But let me now return to the famous Powhattan chief, and 
leave the wrongs of the Indian race to be exposed by an abler 
pen than mine. 

The three great communities which inhabited in ancient 
times the state of Virginia, and some of the surrounding 
territories, were known under the distinctive appellations of 
Mannahoacks, Monacans, and Powhattans. Each of these 
confederacies consisted of many subordinate tribes, with 
their inferior sachems subservient to a common chief, who 
acted as king over them all. The Powhattan nation in- 
habited the low and fertile lands extending from Carolina on 



13 



the south to the Patuxent on the north, while the two former 
nations were settled in the mountainous districts of the interior. 
Of these three great tribes the Powhattans were certainly the 
most numerous and the most formidable. It is equally true, 
that the extensive country which they possessed along the sea 
coast contributed greatly, both by a mildness of climate and 
a richness of soil, to increase its population and furnish a 
sufficient supply of the necessaries of life ; whereas those of 
the neighbouring tribes, who were scattered over the high- 
lands and hilly regions between the falls of the Atlantic 
rivers and the Alleghany ridge, suffered frequently from the 
scarcity of food, as well as the severity of the climate. 
The Powhattans, we are assured, were always looked upon 
with dread and terror by the confederacies of the Manna- 
hoacks and Monacans, who were often under the necessity of 
uniting in self-defence against this powerful and warlike 
clan. As the Indian nations were generally settled on the 
banks of rivers, which location is wisely chosen by refined as 
well as barbarous communities, the Powhattans enjoyed in 
this respect all the advantages which nature could confer on 
them, as they chiefly inhabited the banks of the James, 
Elizabeth, Nansamond, York, and Chickahominy rivers, 
whence they derived the chief means of subsistence, as ap- 
pears from the following passage of Captain Smith, alluding 
to his Potomac expedition. He says that " he met with such 
an abundance of fish, as for want of nets we attempted to 
catch them with a frying pan ; neither better fish, more 
plentie, nor more varietie for small fish, had any of us ever 
seene in any place so swimming in the water — but they 
are not to be caught with frying pans." With regard to 
the abundance of game which Smith met in their rivers, 
we have further proof from the same author. " The 
rivers," he says, " became so covered with swans, geeze, 
duckes, and cranes, that we daily feasted with good bread, 
Virginia pease, pumpions, and putchamins, fish, fowle, and 
diverse sorts of wild beasts, so fat as we could eate them ; 
so that none of our TuftafTaty humourists desired to go to 
England." On another occasion, when Smith happened to 
pass his Christmas among the Indians of the Powhattan 
tribe he experienced much hospitality from them, as he 
informs us in these words: "and we were never more merry, 
nor fed on more plentie of good oysters, fish, flesh, wilde 



14 



fowle, and good bread, nor ever had better fires in Eng- 
land." 

These, and many other passages from the history of the 
valiant Captain Smith, prove beyond a doubt, not only the 
comfortable circumstances in which the Powhattans were 
found by the English colonists, but also the generosity and 
hospitality of rude and savage tribes. It is also an unde- 
niable fact, that the more refined a nation becomes, by im- 
bibing the polish, taste, and ambition of an avaricious and 
selfish society, the less liberality and generosity does a 
stranger receive from them, inasmuch as the comforts and 
luxuries of this world are almost altogether sought by such 
people. In the course, however, of this short notice of the 
Powhattan family, we may see some more remarkable in- 
stances of their humane, kind, and free disposition, however 
barbarous and ferocious their conduct might have sometimes 
proved towards their first European visitors ; but before we 
condemn these rude Indians for any cruel treatment to the 
first white settlers in Virginia, we must first consider who 
were the aggressors, the Europeans or the Red-men. When 
that is properly known we may pronounce judgment, and 
not until then. 

The appellation of Powhattan was given to all the various 
tribes who constituted the confederacy, merely because the 
chief of this name was the common father or ruler of all the 
branches which spread from the real Powhattan family, who 
by hereditary right obtained the superiority. The Pow- 
hattans, properly so called, inhabited what is now called 
Henrico county, being located on the banks of the James 
River, about two days' journey from the English settlement 
at the mouth of that stream. The chief residence of their 
emperor, as he is generally styled by historians, was a small 
but pleasant village called Powhattan, and situated on a 
hill, a little below the place where Richmond stands now. 

Captain Smith, who was never destined by nature to lead 
a quiet and sedentary life, found himself now in a most 
favourable capacity for gratifying his natural and roving 
disposition. He was placed, moreover, in a situation which 
continually called forth his activity and energy of mind. 
His clamorous and discontented companions found them- 
selves destitute of food, and looked to Smith for further 
supplies. Under these critical circumstances, the captain 



15 



was under the necessity of making several voyages along the 
coast of Virginia, as well as journeys up the rivers towards 
the interior, in quest of provisions, for which he had to barter 
with the natives. For this purpose he ascended the Chicka- 
hominy River with one barge, another smaller boat, and a 
sufficient crew. In this expedition the captain, through the 
disobedience of his unruly followers as well as his own im- 
prudence, was made captive by the Indians, who. under 
Opechancanough, their sachem, and brother of Powhattan, 
brought him to Orapakes, one of the chief residences of that 
tribe. On arriving at that village, men, women, and chil- 
dren assembled around Smith to gaze on their illustrious 
stranger, whose singular appearance inspired them with 
feelings of admiration and wonder ; at the same time their 
warriors commenced their national war-dance, which is thus 
described by the captain himself : " A good time they con- 
tinued this exercise, and then cast themselves in a ring, 
dancing in such several postures, and singing and yelling 
out such hellish notes and screeches; being strangely paynted, 
every one his quiver of arrows, and at his backe a club ; on 
his arme a fox or an otter's skinne, or such matter for a 
vambrace ) their heads and shoulders paynted red, with oyle 
and pocones (a small root ground into powder for red colour) 
mingled together, which scarlet-like colour made an exceed- 
ing handsome shew ; his bow in his hand ; and the skinne of 
a bird, with her wings abroad dryed, tyed on his head ; a 
piece of copper, a white shell, a long feather, with a small 
rattle growing at the tayles of their snakes tyed, or some 
such like toy." In the meantime, Smith and their chief 
Opechancanough stood in the centre. When the ceremony 
was ended, they treated him kindly, and served before him 
a plentiful supply of food, venison and fowle in abundance, 
which was sufficient for twenty men. 

For several days the captain experienced vicissitudes of 
fortune among his new guests. At one time he would re- 
ceive the signal marks of friendship, while at another his 
life would be threatened. Finally, they intimated to him 
their intention of assaulting the colony at Jamestown, for 
which purpose they wanted his services. Finding, however, 
that he could not be bribed to so vile a treachery, they 
desisted, and proceeded to lead him about the country as a 
public show, for the gratification of the various tribes which 



16 



formed the Powhattan confederacy. Having completed the 
route, he was at last brought to Opechancanough's own 
habitation, where he was received with the same ridiculous 
ceremonies, as we shall now see from his own words. " Being 
left alone in a long house, with mats spread on each side of 
it, presently came skipping in a great grim fellow, all paynted 
over with coale, mingled with oyle j and many snakes and 
wesels' skinnes stuffed with mosse, and all their tayles tyed 
together, so as they met on the croune of his head in a 
tassel ; and round about the tassel was a coronet of feathers, 
the skinnes hanging round about his head, backe, and 
shoulders, and in a manner covered his face ; with a hellish 
voyce, and a rattle in his hand." As the scenes which 
ensued are excellently delineated in Mr. Lilly's early history 
of America, I shall give his description verbatim, as, no 
doubt, many of my readers are very little acquainted with 
Indian characteristics. 

" This character now began his invocation. He shouted 
like a fiend with all possible gestures and grimaces. He 
carried a tremendous rattle in his hand, moreover, to com- 
plete the concert. This being over, three more of the same 
description, painted half red and half black, came rushing 
in like the first, and performed nearly the same kind of 
dance. But the eyes of the last three were painted 
white ; and some rough strokes of paint were daubed 
along their jaws, as an imitation of English mutachios and 
whiskers. 

(< These men, having skipped and howled round about 
Smith till he was nearly stunned with their noise, retired 
into the ante-chamber, probably to refresh themselves. But 
the ceremony was not over. Three more now leaped into the 
room, not a whit less ugly than the others. These had red 
eyes and white mustachios, painted upon faces as black as 
a kettle. 

" At last, all the dancers seated themselves opposite to 
Smith — three on one side of the chief performer, and three 
on the other. He soon commenced a song, accompanied 
with the noise of rattles. The chief man then laid down 
five grains of wheat, and commenced an oration, straining 
his arms and hands with such violence that his veins swelled. 
At the conclusion of this performance, they all gave a short 
groan, by way of assent to what was said, and laid down 



17 



three grains more. Smith was then entertained with another 
song and oration, the grain being laid down as before. 

" All this continued till night, neither he nor they having 
a morsel of food. The Indians then feasted merrily upon all 
the provisions they could muster, giving Smith a good share 
of them. The ceremonies just described were repeated the 
two following days. Some maize meal, which they strewed 
around him in circles, represented their country, they said ; 
the wheat the bounds of the sea ; and something else was 
used to signify the country of the whites. They gave Smith to 
understand that the world was flat and round, like a trencher, 
themselves being situated, they said, precisely in the middle. 

" After this, they showed him a bag of English gunpowder, 
which they had taken from some of his men. They said 
they were going to preserve it carefully till the next spring, 
1 supposing it to be some new kind of grain which would 
yield them a harvest.'* 

Smith was now invited to visit the residence of Opitchapan, 
second brother to Powhattan, and heir to all his dominions. 
He went accordingly, with his Indian guard. The prince 
feasted him richly with bread and fowl, and other wild meat, 
| while none of the Indians offered to eat with him. Whatever 
i provision he left was put in baskets, and carried back to 
Pamunkey, where the women and children feasted upon it. 

To bring my long story to a close, Smith was at last 
brought into the presence of King Powhattan himself, at a 
place called Werowocomoco. This was on the north side of 
York River, in what is now called Gloucester county, and 
nearly opposite to the mouth of Queen's Creek, about twenty- 
five miles below the mouth of the river. The usual residence of 
Powhattan, however, was at a town named from himself. He 
had reduced under his power a large number of Indian tribes, 
even as far as Patuxent, in Maryland. He was a noble- 
looking savage, and at that time about sixty years of age. 

On the entrance of Smith into his royal presence, the 
king was dressed in a cloak made of the skins of racoons, 
and sitting before a large fire, on an elevated throne, some- 
thing like a bedstead. On his right and left were his two 
daughters; they were handsome girls, who might be, as 
Smith guessed, sixteen and eighteen years of age. The 
I king's chief men, adorned with shells and feathers, and their 
shoulders painted red, were ranged on each side of the 



18 



house. An equal number of women stood directly behind 
them. 

On Smith's being brought in, the whole multitude raised 
a shout. The queen of the Apamattox tribe was now ordered 
to bring him water to wash his hands ; and another brought 
him a bunch of feathers, by way of a towel to wipe them. 
They then feasted him as well as they were able, and a con- 
sultation was afterwards held among them : the conclusion 
seemed to be, that the prisoner should be put to death. Two 
large stones were brought in, and laid at the feet of the king. 
Smith was stretched out with his head on one of them ; and 
Powhattan now stood over him with his club, ready to put 
an end to his life. 

The fatal club was uplifted. The Indians were watching 
in mute suspense for the blow. At this moment the eldest 
and most beloved daughter of the king, Pocahontas, rushed 
forward, and threw herself, with a shriek, on the body of 
Smith. Her hair was loose, and her eyes wild and streaming 
with tears. She raised her hands to her father, and besought 
him, with all the eloquence of love and sorrow, to spare the 
life of his captive. The old king was disappointed ; but he 
loved his beautiful daughter too much to resist her tears and 
cries. He dropped his uplifted club, and looked around on 
his warriors, as if to gather new courage. They were touched 
with pity, like himself, savages as they were. The king now 
raised his daughter, and promised her to spare the life of 
Smith. " He shall make your hatchets for you," said the 
old man, " and your bells, beads, and copper." 

This celebrated scene is preserved in a beautiful piece of 
sculpture, over the western door of the rotunda of the capitol 
at Washington. The group consists of five figures, repre- 
senting the precise moment when Pocahontas, by her inter- 
position, saved Smith from being executed. Smith is attired 
in the military dress, reclining on his elbow, his body ex- 
tended, ready to receive the death-blow from the war-mace 
of an Indian who stands near his head. This work is said to 
be that of Capellano, an Italian, and a pupil of Canova. 

After this Smith had many friendly interviews and nego- 
tiations with Powhattan. During a stay of several weeks 
among the Indians, the captain was entertained with feasting 
and dancing, while he traded also on an extensive scale. 
Although the English colonists frequently endeavoured to 



19 



take advantage of Powhattan in their dealings and bartering, 
yet we are assured that the old chief was generally wide 
awake for his new customers, as appears from his reply to 
Newport: " Captain Newport/' said he, (C it is not agreeable 
to my greatness to truck in this peddling manner for trifles. 
I am a great wevo wance, and I esteem you the same. 
Therefore lay me down all your commodities together ; what 
I like I will take, and in return you shall have what I con- 
ceive to be a fair value." 

On Captain Newport's second arrival from England with 
a fresh supply for the colony, Smith volunteered to visit the 
Powhattan chief, and invite him to come to Jamestown to 
receive the presents which King James had sent to him. 
Among them was a royal crown, to consecrate the " divine 
right'' of his ally in Virginia by the ceremonies of a solemn 
coronation. Accordingly, Smith repaired to Werowocomoco, 
the royal residence of the Indian king. On his arrival, 
however, the chief was absent; but Pocahontas, who was 
ever the constant and faithful friend of the colonists, lost no 
time in sending for her father. In the meantime she endea- 
voured to gratify and honour him, as we learn from the 
following strange scene. 

" Thirtie young women came naked out of the woods, 
only covered behind and before with a few greene leaves ; 
their bodies all paynted, some of one colour, and some of 
another, but all differing. Their leader had a fayr payr of 
buck's horns on her head, and an otter's skinne at her girdle, 
another at her arme, a quiver of arrows at her backe, a 
bowe and arrowes in her hand. The next had in her hand 
a sword, another a club, another a potsticke, all horned 
alike 5 the rest every one with their severall devices. These 
fiends with most hellish shouts and cryes, rushing from 
among the trees, caste themselves in a ring about the fire, 
singing and dauncing with the most excellent ill varietie, oft 
falling into their infernal passions, and solemnly again to 
sing and daunce. Having spent neer an hour in this mas- 
carado, as they entered, in like manner they departed." 

On the following day Powhattan arrived, and declined 
leaving his own territories, suspecting, no doubt, the friendly 
intentions of the colonists at Jamestown. He, however, 
requested them to send him the presents, which were, on 
Smith's return, forwarded to him. The two captains. Smith 



20 



and Newport, immediately followed with a guard of fifty 
men. The parties, as Thatcher describes the coronation, 
then agreed upon the next day for the ceremony ; and at that 
time the presents were brought in, the bed and furniture set up, 
and the scarlet cloak and other apparel put on the emperor, 
though with much ado, in consequence of Nomantack's 
(an Indian servant of Newport) earnest assurance that they 
would injure him. As for kneeling to receive the crown, 
which was requested of him, he entirely exhausted the 
patience of his visitors by his resistance. They gained their 
point in the end by stratagem. One leaned hard upon his 
shoulders, so as to cause him to stoop a little, and three 
more stood ready to fix the royal gewgaw on his head ; 
whereupon, at the discharge of a pistol, the guard were 
prepared with such a volley of musketry as a salute, the 
emperor (now a crowned head) started up in a horrible fear, 
till he saw all was w T ell. Notwithstanding the opposition of 
Powhattan to the ceremony of coronation, the best feelings 
were evinced by him towards his English guests. 

As it would take up too much time to mention all the 
bloody murders which the colonists committed among the 
Indians, and the horrid massacres which the Indians per- 
petrated in the colonies, I shall hasten to finish the history 
of the Powhattan chief and his daughter Pocahontas, who 
twice saved the life of the brave Captain Smith ; and in so 
doing I shall follow the brief account of Stith. 

Pocahontas was in the habit of bringing or sending in 
provisions to Jamestown, for some time after Smith's ac- 
quaintance with her, for the relief of the colonists. Every 
other day four or five of her stout Indians, whom, as a 
king's daughter, she commanded at pleasure, came lugging 
in loads of venison, and sweet Indian bread, as yellow as 
gold, and plenty of wild game. For this she refused all 
compensation, but the gratitude of the colony and the 
friendship of Smith. 

In 1612, when Captain Argall came over from England, 
with a view to trade with Powhattan and his tribes, he found 
them in a state of war with the English. He thought, how- 
ever, if he could get possession of the old king's beloved 
and beautiful daughter, as a hostage, this war would soon 
cease, and a fine trade might be driven with the savages, 
By means of Japazaws, a Potowmac sachem, he learned 



21 



that Pocahontas was concealed somewhere near the Potow- 
mac River, about the mouth of that stream ; and, without 
the least mercy on the poor girl, he bribed Japazaws to sur- 
prise her and deliver her into his hands, giving him a bright 
copper kettle for his reward. 

Powhattan was now greatly afflicted. He even sent two 
of his sons to Jamestown, to offer Governor Gates all the 
guns, tools, and prisoners he had taken from the English, 
as a ransom for his daughter. This was refused ; but the 
young men brought him back an account of her being well 
treated, which pleased and soothed him. Not long after 
this, Mr. Rolfe proposed marriage to Pocahontas. He 
had long been attached to her, it is said, Indian as she was ; 
and she had no great dislike for him. She sent to her father, 
however, to obtain his consent to the marriage. The plan 
pleased the king greatly. He sent his brother and two sons 
within ten days to witness the marriage ceremonies ; and 
from this time he continued quite friendly to the colonists. 

In 1714, Mr. Hamer, of Jamestown, paid the king a 
visit, carrying some strings of white and blue beads, fine 
wooden combs, fish-hooks, knives, and copper, as presents. 
The old king treated him politely, offered him a pipe of 
tobacco, and inquired for the health of Dale, who was now 
governor, and also how his daughter liked her husband, and 
how her husband liked her. Hamer said they liked each 
other so well, that she would never return to her father's. 
Powhattan laughed at this answer, and then demanded the 
object of Hamer's journey. The latter told him, that go- 
vernor Dale hearing of the beauty of his second daughter, 
wished to marry her, and desired the king to send her to 
Jamestown, at all events, if it were only to visit her sister 
Pocahontas. The king had hardly patience enough to hear 
Hamer finish this message. He answered with great gravity, 
in a solemn voice, " he could not part with both daughters, 
though he should gladly live in peace with the English. He 
had grown old and desired no more fighting ; but he could 
not part with his child." 

Pocahontas went to England with her husband after this. 
She was an object of great curiosity and attention in London 
for several years. She learned the English language, and 
was baptized under the name of Lady Rebecca. Lady De 
la Warr took her to court also, and king James treated her 



22 



with great kindness. After this captain Smith visited her at 
Brentford, where she resided with her husband. She could 
scarcely restrain her feelings at seeing Smith. She died at 
Gravesend, in 1716. Her descendants are among the most 
respectable people in Virginia to this day. Powhattan died 
subsequently, very nearly a hundred years old. 

Her son, who with his father Rolfe, was on the eve of 
sailing from England and accompanying her to Virginia, was 
on his mother s death, left under the care and protection of 
Sir Lewis Steukly at Plymouth. After this gentleman had 
become unfortunate through his opposition to Sir Walter 
Raleigh, young Rolfe was sent to London, under the tuition 
of his uncle Henry Rolfe. Having grown up in years, he 
returned to Virginia, where he inherited a vast tract of land, 
the property of his grandfather, the famous Powhattan. In 
a very short time he became wealthy. On his death he left 
an only daughter, whose descendants can be traced at the 
present day throughout the United States. 

Such is a brief sketch of the history of the first colony in 
Virginia, and the famous Powhattan. The second daughter 
of the emperor, as he is generally styled by historians, was 
called Powcanoe, from whom many Indian families in Vir- 
ginia have derived their descent. 

From this same tribe, among whom Powcanoe was married, 
I am lineally descended, according to their osmago, or 
tradition. The Indians of Virginia at the present day relate 
some curious and interesting stories concerning Manotee, the 
eldest son of Powcanoe. The substance of one of them is 
as follows : — During a predatory excursion against the whites, 
Manotee, the grandson of Powhattan, conceived and executed 
a plan for taking a piece of cannon from the English co- 
lonists. In order to succeed in this attempt, he proposed to 
some twenty or thirty warriors that they should visit the 
white settlement and offer them presents of Indian corn, 
venison, fish, and deer-skin ; at the same time they were to 
give every assurance of friendship on their part. As the 
colonists were frequently destitute of provisions, especially 
in the spring of the year, the presents were highly appre- 
ciated. Koriasko in return merely requested that they would 
fire off one of their pieces of cannon. To this the English 
immediately agreed. During the firing of the big gun, the 
Indian chief watched and observed all their movements, so 



23 



that he not only learned the manner of loading their guns, 
but marked particularly the place where they kept their 
ammunition, and likewise instructed his companions to make 
the same observation. Having fired four or five shots, which 
delighted rather than terrified the warriors, Manotee pre- 
tended to have some great secret to disclose, and led aside 
the governor for the purpose of apprising him of an 
imminent danger. During this interval the Indian warriors 
performed many ceremonies which excited a great deal of 
interest on the part of the whites. They covered their faces 
and eyes with their hands, as a sign of mourning, which 
I they accompanied with shouts of lamentation. Without any 
l delay the governor called his council, and gave them to 
j understand that Manotee came to the settlement for the 
purpose of saving them from utter destruction, as a hostile 
tribe was encamped about three miles from the colony, and 
intended to commit a general massacre. As soon as Manotee 
saw them apprehensive of danger, he presented himself 
immediately before the council, and suggested the propriety 
of arming themselves, and starting in quest of the enemy. 
He likewise proposed that the governor and himself should 
command the expedition, while ten of his warriors should 
' remain as a protection for their wives and families. To 
this proposal the English at once consented, and set off in- 
stantly in pursuit of the hostile tribe. The Indian chief 
shrewdly led the armed colonists to the place where he and 
his companions had encamped the night before. On their 
arrival here, Manotee and his warriors showed, or at least 
pretended to show, a great deal of surprise and vexation at 
not finding the enemy. The English returned to their settle- 
ment, no less gratified at their safety than the Indians were, 
by having succeeded in securing the piece of cannon through 
this deception. Those Indians who had remained as a guard 
for the settlement had no sooner seen the whites depart, 
than they started off with a piece of cannon, ammunition, 
and two of their boats. Having arrived at the appointed 
place, they were soon rejoined by Manotee and his warriors. 
Although the English felt indignant at this stratagem, which 
threw them into the greatest consternation, and deprived 
them of the cannon and a considerable quantity of amrau. 
nition, the fraud turned out at last to be the means of saving 
j the lives of several of the colonists, who had been out on a 



24 



hunting excursion, and had wandered in the woods for many- 
days, exhausted with fatigue and hnnger. In this state of 
privation, they found themselves one day in the vicinity of 
an Indian settlement, by means of the report of the gun 
which had been stolen some few days before. They soon 
found themselves in the presence of Manotee and three or 
four hundred warriors, who were summoned to witness the 
novelty and curiosity of gunpowder. The chief candidly 
acknowledged the artifice which he had used in taking off 
the cannon ; and, as a remuneration, he received the English 
with the most exemplary hospitality. After loading them 
with presents of provisions and other articles, he sent four 
Indians as guides, who should conduct them to the colony. 
This and many other stories about Manotee are still alive in 
the memories of the Indians of Virginia, the descendants of 
that noble chief. 



III. SLAVERY. 

Narrative of the Rev, Horace Moulton, an esteemed Mi- 
nister of the Methodist Episcopal Churchy in Marlborough, 
Massachussets. 

Let me say in the first place, that I spent nearly five 
years in Savannah, Georgia, and in its vicinity, between the 
years 1817 and 1824. My object in going to the South 
was to engage in making and burning bricks ; but not 
immediately succeeding, I engaged in no business of much 
profit, until late in the winter, when I took charge of a set 
of hands and went to work. During my leisure, I was an 
observer at the auctions, upon the plantations, and in almost 
every department of business. The next year, during the 
cold months, I had several two-horse teams under my care, 
with which we used to haul brick, boards, and other articles 
from the wharf, and cotton, rice, corn, and wood from the 
country. This gave me an extensive acquaintance with 
merchants, mechanics, and planters. I had slaves under my 



25 



control, some portions of every year when at the South. 
AH the brick-yards, except one, on which I was engaged, were 
connected either with a corn field, potatoe patch, rice field, 
cotton field, tan works, or with a wood lot. My business 
usually was to take charge of the brick-making department. 
At those jobs I have taken sometimes in charge both the 
field and brick-yard hands. I have been on the plantations 
in South Carolina, but have never been an overseer of slaves 
in that state, as has been said in the public papers. 

I think the above facts and explanations are necessary to 
be connected with the account I may give of slavery, that 
the reader may have some knowledge of my acquaintance 
with practical slavery ; for many mechanics and merchants 
who go to the south, and stay there for years, know but little of 
the dark side of slavery. My account of slavery will apply 
to field hands, who compose much the largest portion of the 
black population (probably nine-tenths), and not to those 
who are kept for kitchen maids, nurses, waiters, &c, about 
the houses of the planters and public hotels, where persons 
from the north obtain most of their knowledge of the evils 
of slavery. I will now proceed to take up specific points. 

1. The labour of the slaves. Males and females work 
together promiscuously on all the plantations. On many 
plantations, tasks are given them. The best working hands 
can have some leisure time ; but the feeble and unskilful 
ones, together with slender females, have indeed a hard time 
of it, and very often answer for non-performance of tasks at 
the whipping posts. None who worked with me had tasks at 
any time. The rule was to work them from sun to sun. 
But where I was burning brick, they were obliged to take 
turns, and sit up all night about every other night, and work 
all day. On one plantation, where I spent a few weeks, 
the slaves were called to work long before daylight, when 
business pressed, and worked until late atriight; and some- 
times some of them all night. A large portion of the 
slaves are owned by masters who keep them on purpose to 
hire out; and they usually let them to those who will give 
the highest wages for them, irrespective of their mode of 
treatment ; and those who hire them will of course try to 
get the greatest possible amount of work performed, with 
the least possible expense. Women are seen bringing their 
infants into the field to their work, and leading others who 

c 



26 

are not old enough to stay at the cabins with safety. When 
they get there, they must set them down in the dirt, and go 
to work. Sometimes they are left to cry until they fall 
asleep. Others are left at home, shut up in their huts. 
Now, is it not barbarous, that the mother, with her child or 
children around her half starved, must be whipped at night, 
if she does not perform her task ? But so it is. Some who 
have very young ones fix a little sack, and place the infants 
on their backs, and work. One reason, I presume is, that they 
will not cry so much when they can hear their mother's 
voice. Another is, the mother's fear that poisonous vipers 
and snakes will bite them. Truly, I never knew any place 
where the land is so infested with all kinds of the most 
venomous snakes, as in the low lands round about Savannah. 
The Moccasin snakes, so called, and water rattlesnakes, 
the bites of both of which are as poisonous as our upland 
rattlesnakes at the north, are found in myriads about the 
stagnant waters and swamps of the south. The females, in 
order to secure their infants from these poisonous snakes, I 
do, as I have said, often work with their infants on their I 
backs. Females are sometimes called to take the hardest 
part of the work. On some brick yards where I have been, 
the women have been selected as the moulders of bricks, 
instead of the men. 

2. The food of the slaves. It was a general custom, 
wherever I have been, for the masters to give each of the 
slaves, male and female, one peck of corn per week for their 
food. This at fifty cents per bushel, which was all that it 
was worth when I was there, would amount to twelve and a 
half cents per week for board per head. 

It cost me on an average, when at the South, one dollar 
per day for board, the price of fourteen bushels of corn per 
week. This would make my board equal in amount to the 
board of forty-six slaves ! This is all that good or bad 
masters allow their slaves round about Savannah on the 
plantations. One peck of Gourd seed corn is to be mea- 
sured out to each slave once every week. One man with 
whom I laboured, however, being desirous to get all the work 
out of his hands he could, before I left (about fifty in num- 
ber), bought for them every week, or twice a week, a bullock's 
head from market. With this they made a soup in a large 
iron kettle, around which the hands came at meantime, and 



27 



dipping out the soup, would mix it with their hommony, and 
i eat it as though it were a feast. This man permitted his 
| slaves to eat twice a day, while T was doing a job for him. 

He promised me a beaver hat, and as good a suit of clothes 
| as could be bought in the city, if I could accomplish so 
i much for him before I returned to the North ; giving me the 
entire control over his slaves. Thus you may see the 
temptations the overseers sometimes have, to get all the 
work they can out of the poor slaves. The above is an 
exception to the general rule of feeding ; for in all other 
places where I worked and visited, the slaves had nothing 
from their masters but the com, or its equivalent in potatoes 
or rice ; and to this they were not permitted to come but 
once a day. The custom was to blow the horn early in the 
morning, as a signal for the hands to rise and go to work ; 
when commenced, they continued work until about eleven 
o'clock, a. m., when at the signal, all hands left off, and 
went into their huts, made their fires, made their corn meal 
into hommony or cake, ate it, and went to work again at the 
signal of the horn, and worked until night, or until their 
tasks were done. Some cooked their breakfast in the field 
| while at work. Each slave must grind his own corn in a 
hand mill after he has done his work at night. There is 
generally one hand mill on every plantation for the use of 
the slaves. 

Some of the planters have no corn, others often get out. 
The substitute for it is the equivalent of one peck of corn 
either in rice or sweet potatoes $ neither of which is as good 
for the slaves as corn. They complain more of being faint, 
when fed on rice or potatoes, than when fed on corn. I was 
! with one man a few weeks who gave me his hands to do a 
job of work, and to save time one cooked for all the rest. 
The following course was taken : two crotched sticks were 
driven down at one end of the yard, and a small pole being 
laid on the crotches, they swung a large iron kettle on the 
middle of the pole ; then made up a fire under the kettle 
and boiled the hommony 3 when ready, the hands were called 
around this kettle, with their wooden plates and spoons. 
They dipped out and ate standing around the kettle or sitting 
on the ground, as best suited their convenience. When they 
had potatoes, they took them out with their hands and ate 
them. As soon as it was thought they had sufficient time 

c 2 



28 



to swallow their food, they were called to their work again. 
This was the only meal they ate through the day. Now 
think of the little, almost naked and half starved children, 
nibbling on a piece of cold Indian cake, or potatoe ! Think 
of the poor female, just ready to be confined, without any 
thing that can be called convenient or comfortable ! Think 
of the old toil worn father and mother, without any thing to 
eat but the coarsest of food, and not half enough of that ! 
then think of home. When sick their physicians are their 
masters and overseers,, in most cases, whose skill consists in 
bleeding and administering large potions of Epsom salts, 
when the. whip and cursing will not start them from their 
cabins. 

3. Houses. The huts of the slaves are of the poorest kind. 
They are not as good as those temporary shanties which are 
thrown up beside railroads. They are erected with posts and 
crotches, with but little or no frame work about them. They 
have no stoves or chimneys ; some of them have something 
like a fire-place at one end, and a board or two off at that 
side, or on the roof, to let out the smoke. Others have no- 
thing like a fire-place in them ; in these the fire is sometimes 
made in the middle of the hut. These buildings have but 
one apartment in them ; the places where they pass in and 
about, serve both for doors and windows ; the sides and 
roofs are covered with coarse, and in many instances with 
refuse boards. In warm weather, especially in the spring, 
the slaves keep up a smoke, or fire and smoke all night, to 
drive away the gnats and mosquitoes, which are very trouble- 
some in all the low country of the South ; so much so, that 
the whites sleep under frames with nets over them, knit so 
fine that the mosquitoes cannot fly through them. 

Some of the slaves have rugs to cover them in the coldest 
weather, but I should think more have not. During driving 
storms they frequently have to run from one hut to another 
for shelter. In the coldest weather, when they can get wood 
or stumps, they keep fires all night in their huts, and lay 
around them, with their feet towards the blaze. Men > 
women, and children, lie down together, in most instances. 
There may be exceptions to the above statements, in regard 
to their houses, but so far as my observations have extended, 
I have given a fair description, and I have been on a large 
number of plantations in Georgia, South Carolina, up and 



29 



down the Savannah river. Their huts are generally built 
compactly on the plantations,, forming villages of huts, their 
size proportioned to the number of slaves on them. In these 
miserable huts, the poor blacks are herded at night like 
swine, without any conveniences of bedsteads, tables, or 
chairs. O misery to the full ! to see the aged sire beating 
off the swarms of gnats and mosquitoes in the warm weather, 
and shivering in the straw, or bending over a few coals in 
the winter, clothed in rags. In many instances males and 
females, both lie down at night with their working clothes on 
them. God alone knows how much the poor slaves suffer for 
the want of convenient houses to secure them from the 
piercing winds and howling storms of winter, especially the 
aged, sick, aud dying. Although it is much warmer there 
than here, yet I suffered for a number of weeks in the winter, 
almost as much in Georgia as in Massachussets. 

4. Clothing. The masters (in Georgia) make a practice 
of getting two suits of clothes for each slave per year, a 
thick suit for winter, and a thin one for summer. They pro- 
vide also one pair of Northern sale shoes for each slave in 
winter. These shoes usually begin to rip in a few weeks. 
The negroes' usual mode of mending them is, to wire them 
together. Do our Northern shoemakers know that they are 
augmenting the sufferings of the poor slaves, with their 
almost good for nothing sale shoes ? This very insufficient 
practice of clothing the slave is customary to a very large 
extent. How many there are who fail of this, God only 
knows. The children and old slaves are, I should think, 
-exceptions to the above rule. The males and females 
have their suits from the same cloth for their winter dresses. 
These winter garments appear to be made of a mixture of 
cotton and wool, very coarse and sleazy. The whole suit for 
the men consists of a pair of pantaloons, and a short sailor 
jacket, without shirt, vest, hat, or any kind of loose gar- 
ments. 

These, if worn steadily when at work, would not probably 
last more than one or two months 5 therefore, for the sake 
of saving them, many of them work, especially in the 
summer, with no clothing on them except a cloth tied round 
their waist, and almost all with nothing more on them than 
pantaloons, and these frequently so torn, that they do not 
serve the purposes of common decency. The women have 



30 



for clothing a short petticoat, and a short loose gown, some- 
thing like the male's sailor jacket, without any under 
garment, stockings, bonnets, hoods, caps, or any kind of over- 
clothes. When at work in warm weather, they usually strip 
off the loose gown, and have nothing on but a short petticoat, 
with some kind of covering over their breasts. Many 
children may be seen in the summer months, as naked as 
they came into the world. I think, as a whole, they suffer 
more for the want of comfortable bedclothes, than they do 
for wearing apparel. It is true, that some, by begging or 
buying, have more clothes than above described, but the 
masters provide them with nothing more. They are miserable 
objects of pity. It may be said of many of them, " I was 
naked, and ye clothed me not." It is enough to melt the 
hardest heart to see the ragged mothers nursing their almost 
naked children, with but a morsel of the coarsest food to 
eat. The Southern horses and dogs have enough to eat, and 
good care taken of them, but Southern negroes, who can 
describe their misery ? 

5. Punishments. The ordinary mode of punishing the 
slaves is both cruel and barbarous. The masters seldom, if 
ever, try to govern their slaves by moral influence, but by 
whipping, kicking, beating, starving, branding, cat-hauling, 
loading with irons, imprisoning, or by some other cruel mode 
of torturing. They often boast of having invented some 
new mode of torture, by which they have " tamed the 
rascals/' What is called a moderate flogging at the South 
is horribly cruel. Should we whip our horses for any offence 
as they whip their slaves for small offences, we should expose 
ourselves to the penalty of the law. The masters whip for 
the smallest offences, such as not performing their tasks, 
being caught by the guard or patrol at night, or for taking 
anything from the master's yard without leave. For these, 
and the like crimes, the slaves are whipped thirty-nine lashes, 
and sometimes seventy or a hundred, on the bare back. 
One slave who was under my care was whipped, 1 think, 
one hundred lashes, for getting a small handful of wood 
from his master's yard without leave. I heard an overseer 
boasting to this same master that he gave one of the boys 
seventy lashes, for not doing a job of work just as he 
thought it ought to be done. The owner of the slave 
appeared to be pleased that the overseer had been so faithful. 



31 



The apology they make for whipping so cruelly is, that it is 
to frighten the rest of the gang. The masters say that what 
we call an ordinary flogging will not subdue the slaves ; 
hence the most cruel and barbarous scourgings ever witnessed 
by man are daily and hourly inflicted upon the naked bodies 
of these miserable bondmen ; not by masters and negro- 
drivers only, but by the constables in the common markets, 
and jailors in their yards. 

When the slaves are whipped either iu public or private, 
they have their hands fastened by the wrists, with a rope or 
cord prepared for the jmrpose ;^hj^bfiin§*^bform over a 
beam, a limb of a tree, or something else, the culprit is 
drawn up and stretched by the arms as high as possible, 
without raising his feet from the ground or floor ; and some- 
times they are made to stand on tiptoe ; then the feet are 
made fast to something prepared for them. In this distorted 
posture the monster flies at them, sometimes in great rage, 
with his implements of torture, and cuts on with all his 
might, over the shoulders, under the arms, and sometimes 
over the head and ears, or on parts of the body where he can 
inflict the greatest torment. Occasionally the whipper, 
especially if his victim does not beg enough to suit him, 
while under the lash, will fly into a passion, uttering the most 
horrid oaths ; while the victim of his rage is crying at every 
stroke, " Lord have mercy ! Lord have mercy." The scenes 
exhibited at the whipping posts are awfully terrific to one 
whose heart has not been hardened to a stone by such sights. 
I never could look on but a moment. While under the 
lash, the victim writhes in agony, convulsed with torture. 
Thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, writer* tear the skin at 
almost every stroke, is what the South calls a very moderate 
punishment. Many masters whip until they are tired — until 
the back is a gore of blood ; then rest upon it : after a 
short cessation, get up and go at it again ; and after having 
satiated their revenge in the blood of their victims, they 
sometimes leave them tied for four hours together, bleeding 
at every wound. Sometimes, after being whipped, they are 
bathed with a brine of salt and water. Now and then a 
a master, but more frequently a mistress who has no husband, 
will send them to jail a few days, giving orders to have them 
whipped, so many lashes, once or twice a day. Sometimes 
after being whipped, some have been shut up in a dark 



32 



place and deprived of food, in order to increase their tor- 
ments 5 and I have heard of some who have, in such circum- 
stances, died of their wounds and starvation. 

Such scenes of horror as are above described are m 
common in Georgia, that they attract no attention. To 
threaten them with death, with breaking in their jaws or 
teeth, or cracking their heads, is common talk, when scolding 
at the slaves. Those who run away from their masters 
and are caught generally fare the worst. They are usually 
lodged in jail, with instructions from the owner to have 
them cruelly whipped. Some order the constables to whip 
them publicly in the market. Constables at the South are 
generally savage, brutal men. They have become so accus- 
tomed to catching and whipping negroes, that they are as 
fierce as tigers. Slaves who are absent from their yards or 
plantations after eight o'clock, p. m., and are taken by the 
guards in the cities or by the patrols in the country, are, if 
not called for before nine o'clock a. m. the next day, secured 
in prisons ; and hardly ever escape until their backs are torn 
up by the cow hide. On plantations, the evenings usually 
present scenes of horror. Those slaves against whom charges 
are preferred for not having performed their tasks, and for 
various faults, must after work-hours at night undergo their 
torments. 1 have often heard the sound of the lash, the 
curses of the whipper, and the cries of the poor negroes 
rending the air, J ate in the evening, and long before day 
light in the morning. 

It is very common for masters to say to the overseers or 
drivers, " put it on to them," " do'nt spare that fellow;" 
" give that scoundrel one hundred lashes," &c. Whipping 
the women when in delicate circumstances, as they sometimes 
do, without any regard to their entreaties, or the entreaties 
of their nearest friends, is truly barbarous. If negroes could 
testify, they would tell you of instances of women being 
whipped, until they have miscarried at the whipping- post. 
I heard of such things at the South ; they are undoubtedly 
facts. Children are whipped unmercifully for the smallest 
offences, and that before their mothers. A large proportion 
of the blacks have their shoulders, backs, and arms all 
scarred up, and not a few of them have had their heads laid 
open with clubs, stones, and brick-bats, and with the butt- 
end of whips and canes. Some have had their jaws broken, 



33 



others their teeth knocked in or out; while others have had 
their ears cropped, and the sides of their cheeks gashed out. 
Some of the poor creatures have lost the sight of one of 
their eyes, by the careless blows of the whippers or by some 
other violence. 

But punishing slaves as above described is not the only 
mode of torture. Some tie them up in a very uneasy pos- 
ture, where they must stand all night, and they will work 
them hard all day, that is, work them hard all day and 
torture them all night Others punish them by fastening 
them down on a log, or something else, and strike them on 
the bare skin with a board paddle full of holes. This breaks 
the skin, I should presume, at every hole where it comes in 
contact with it. Others, when other modes of punishment 
will not subdue them, cat-haul them, that is, take a cat by 
the nape of the neck and tail, or by the hind legs, and drag 
the claws across the back until satisfied. This kind of pun- 
ishment poisons the flesh much worse than the whip, and is 
more dreaded by the slave. Some are branded by a hot 
iron, others have their flesh cut out in large gashes, to mark 
them. Some, who are prone to run away, have iron fetters 
riveted around their ancles, sometimes they are only put on 
one foot, and are dragged on the ground. Others have on 
large iron collars or yokes on their necks, or clogs riveted on 
their wrists or ancles. Some have bells put upon them, hung 
upon a sort of frame to an iron collar. Some masters fly 
into a rage at trifles, and knock down their negroes with 
their fists, or with the first thing that they can get hold of. 
The whip-lash knots, or raw hide, have sometimes, by a 
reckless stroke, reached round to the front of the body 
and cut through to the bowels. One slaveholder, with whom 
I lived, whipped one of his slaves one day as many, I should 
think, as one hundred lashes, and then turned to the butt 
end, and went to beating him over the head and ears, and 
truly I was amazed that the slave was not killed on the spot. 
Not a few slaveholders whip their slaves to death, and then 
say that they died under " a moderate correction. " I won- 
der that ten are not killed where one is ! Were they not 
much hardier than the whites many more of them must die 
than do. One young mulatto man, with whom I was well 
acquainted, was killed by his master in his yard with im- 

c 5 



34 



punity. I boarded at the same time near the place where 
this glaring murder was committed, and knew the master 
well. He had a plantation on which he enacted, almost 
daily, cruel barbarities ; some of them I was informed more 
terrific, if possible, than death itself. Little notice was 
taken of this murder, and it all passed off without any action 
being taken against the murderer. The masters used to try 
to make me whip their negroes. They said I could not get 
along with them without flogging them ; but I found I could 
get along better with them by coaxing and encouraging them, 
than by beating and flogging them. I had not a heart to beat 
and kick about those beings ; although I had not grace in 
my heart the three first years I was there, yet I sympathized 
with the slaves. I never was guilty of having but one 
whipped, and he was whipped but eight or nine blows. The 
circumstances were as follows -. — Several negroes were put 
under my care one spring, who were fresh from Congo and 
Virginia. I could not understand them, neither could they 
one word I spoke ; I therefore pointed to them to go to 
work ; all obeyed me willingly but one, he refused. I 
told the driver that he must tie him up and whip him. After 
he had tied him, by the help of some others, we struck him 
eight or nine blows, and he yielded. I told the driver not to 
strike him another blow. We untied him, and he went to 
work, and continued faithful all the time he was with rae. 
This one was not a sample, however ; many of them have 
such exalted views of freedom that it is hard work for the 
masters to whip them into brutes, that is, to subdue their 
noble spirits. The negroes being put under my care, did not 
prevent the masters from whipping them when they pleased ; 
but they never whipped much in my presence ; this work was 
usually left until 1 had dismissed the hands. On the plant- 
ations the masters chose to have the slaves whipped in the 
presence of all hands, to strike them with terror. 

6. Runaways. — Numbers of poor slaves run away from 
their masters, some of whom doubtless perish in the swamps 
and other secret places, rather than return back again to 
their masters ; others stay away until they almost famish 
with hunger, and then return home rather than die, while 
others who abscond are caught by the negro-hunters, in 
various ways. Sometimes the master will hire some of his 



35 



most trusty negroes to secure any stray negroes who come 
on to their plantations. The slaves assist one another usually 
when they can, and not be found out in it. The master can 
now and "then, however, get some of his hands to betray the 
runaways. Some obtain their living in hunting after lost 
slaves. The mos'i common way is to train up young dogs to 
follow them. This can easily be done by obliging a slave 
to go out into the woods and climb a tree, and then put the 
young dog on his track, and with a little assistance he can 
be taught to follow him to the tree, and when found of course 
the dog would bark at such game as a poor negro on a tree. 
There was a man living in Savannah when I was there, who 
kept a large number of dogs for no other purpose than to 
hunt runaway negroes ; and he always had enough of this 
work to do, for hundreds of runaways are never found ; but 
could he get news soon after one had fled, he was almost sure 
to catch him. And this fear of the dogs restrains multitudes 
from running off. 

When he went out on a hunting excursion, to be gone 
several days, he took several persons with him, armed gene- 
rally with rifles, and followed by the dogs. The dogs were 
as true to the track of a negro, if one had passed recently, 
as a hound is to the track of a fox when he has found it. 
When the dogs draw near to their game, the slave must turn 
and fight them, or climb a tree. If the latter, the dogs will 
stay and bark until the pursuers come. The blacks frequently 
deceive the dogs by crossing and recrossing creeks. Should 
the hunters who have no dogs start a slave from his hiding 
place, and the slave not to stop at the hunter's call, he will 
shoot at him as soon as he would at a deer. Some masters 
advertize so much for a runaway slave, dead or alive. It 
undoubtedly gives so much more satisfaction to know that 
their property is dead, than to know that it is alive without 
being able to get it. Some slaves run away who never mean 
to be taken alive again. I will mention one. He ran off, 
and was pursued by the dogs, but having a weapon with him, 
he succeeded in killing two or three of the dogs, but was 
afterwards shot. He had declared that he never would be 
taken alive. The people rejoiced at the death of the slave, 
but lamented the death of the dogs, they were such ravenous 
hunters. Poor fellow, he fought for life and liberty like a 



36 



hero ; but the bullets brought him down. A negro can 
hardly walk unmolested at the south. Every coloured 
stranger that walks the streets is suspected of being a run- 
away slave ; hence he must be interrogated by every negro- 
hater whom he meets, and should he not have a pass, he 
must be arrested and hurried off to gaol. Some masters 
boast that their slaves would not be free if they could. How 
little they know of their slaves ! They are all sighing and 
groaning for freedom. May God hasten the time ! 

7. Confinement at night. — When the slaves have done 
their day's work, they must be herded together like sheep in 
their yards, or on their plantations. They have not as much 
liberty as northern men, who are sent to jail for debt, for 
they have liberty to walk a larger yard than the slaves have. 
The'slaves must all be at their homes precisely at eight o'clock, 
p. m. At this hour the drums beat in the cities, as a signal 
for every slave to be in his den. In the country the signal 
is given by the firing of guns, or some other way by which 
they may know the hour when to be at home. After this 
hour, the guard in the cities, and patrol in the country, being 
well armed, are on duty until day-light in the morning. If 
they catch any negroes during the night without a pass, they 
are immediately seized and hurried away to the guard-house, 
or, if in the country, to some place of confinement, where 
they are kept until nine o'clock, a. m., the next day ; if not 
called for by that time, they are hurried off to jail, and there 
remain until called for by their master, and his jail and 
guard-house fees paid. The guards and patrols receive one 
dollar extra for every one they can catch, who has not a pass 
from his master, or overseer. But few masters will give 
their slaves passes to be out at night, unless on some special 
business ; notwithstanding, many venture out, watching every 
step they take for the guard or patrol, the consequence is, 
some are caught almost every night, and some nights many 
are taken ; some, fleeing after being hailed by the watch, are 
shot down in attempting their escape, others are crippled 
for life. 

Monsieur C. C. Robin, who resided in Louisiana from 
1802 to 1806, and who published a volume containing the 
results of his observations there, thus speaks of the condition 
of the slaves : — 



37 



u While they are at labour, the manager, the master, or the 
driver has commonly the whip in hand to strike the idle. 
But those of the negroes who are judged guilty of serious 
faults, are punished with twenty, twenty-five, forty, fifty, or 
one hundred lashes. The manner of this cruel execution is 
as follows : — Four stakes are driven down, making a long 
square ; the culprit is extended naked between these stakes, 
face downwards ; his hands and his feet are bound separately 
with strong cords to each of the stakes, so far apart that his 
arms and legs, stretched in the form of St. Andrew's cross, 
give the poor wretch no chance of stirring. Then the exe- 
cutioner, who is ordinarily a negro, armed with the long 
whip of a coachman, strikes upon the reins and thighs. The 
crack of his whip resounds afar, like that of an angry cart- 
man beating his horses. The blood flows, the long wounds 
cross each other, strips of skin are raised, without softening 
either the hand of the executioner or the heart of the master, 
who cries, ' sting him harder.' 

4 ' The reader is moved ; so am I. My agitated hand refuses 
to trace the bloody picture, to recount how many times the 
piercing cry of pain has interrupted my silent occupations ; 
how many times I have shuddered at the faces of those bar- 
barous monsters, where I saw inscribed the number of vic- 
tims sacrificed to their ferocity. 

" The women are subjected to these punishments as rigo- 
rously as the men — not even pregnancy exempts them ; in 
that case, before binding them to the stakes, a hole is made 
in the ground to accommodate the enlarged form of the victim. 

" It is remarkable that the white creole women are ordi- 
narily more inexorable than the men. Their slow and languid 
gait, and the trifling services which they impose, betoken an 
apathetic indolence ; but should the slave not promptly obey, 
should he even fail to divine the meaning of their gestures 
or looks, in an instant they are armed with a formidable 
whip ; it is no longer the form which but feebly sustains 
itself. They themselves order the punishment of one of 
these poor creatures, and with a dry eye see their victim 
bound to four stakes ; they count the blows, and raise a 
voice of menace if the arm that strikes relaxes, or if the 
blood does not flow in sufficient abundance. Their sensi- 
bility changed to fury must needs feed itself for a while on 



38 



the hideous spectacle ; they must, as if to revive themselves, 
hear the piercing- shrieks, and see the flow of fresh blood ; 
there are some of them who, in their frantic rage, pinch and 
bite their victims. 

" It is by no means wonderful, that the laws designed to 
protect the slave should be little respected by the generality 
of such masters. I have seen masters pay those unfortunate 
people the miserable overcoat which is their due ; but others 
give them nothing at all, and do not even leave them the 
hours and Sundays granted to them by law. I have seen 
some of those barbarous masters leave them, during the 
winter, in a state of revolting nudity, even contrary to their 
own true interests, for they thus weaken and shorten the 
lives upon which repose the whole of their own fortunes. I 
have seen some of those negroes compelled to conceal their 
nakedness with the long moss of the country. The sad 
melancholy of these wretches, depicted on their counte- 
nances, the flight of some, and the death of others, do not 
reclaim their masters ; they wreak upon those who remain 
the vengeance which they can no longer exercise upon the 
others. " 

Narrative and testimony of the Rev. Francis Hawley, 
pastor of the Baptist church in Colebrook, Litchfield county, 
Connecticut. He resided fourteen years in the slave states 
of North and South Carolina. His character and standing 
jn society are unquestionable. 

"Plantations. — A majority of the large plantations are on 
the banks of rivers, far from the public eye. A great deal 
of low marshy ground lies in the vicinity of most of the 
rivers at the south; consequently, the main roads are several 
miles from the rivers, and generally no public road passes 
the plantations. A stranger travelling on the ridge would 
think himself in a miserably poor country ; but every two 
or three miles he will see a road turning off, and leading 
into the swamp ; taking one of those roads, and travelling 
from two to six miles, he will find a large gate, passing 
which he will find himself in a clearing of several hundred 
acres of the first quality of land ; passing on, he will see 
thirty or forty, or more slaves — men, women, boys, and 
girls, at their task, every one with a hoe, or, if in cotton- 



39 



picking season, with their baskets; the overseer, with his 
whip, either riding or standing about among them, or, if 
the weather is hot, sitting under a shade. At a distance, on 
a little rising ground, if such there be, he will see a cluster 
of huts, with a tolerable house in the midst for the overseer. 
Those huts are from ten to fifteen feet square, built of logs, 
and covered, not with shingles, but with boards, about four 
feet long, and split out of pine timber with a ' frow.' The 
floors are very commonly made in this way. Clay is first 
worked until it is soft ; it is then spread on the ground, 
about four or five inches thick; when it dries it becomes 
nearly as hard as brick. The crevices between the logs are 
sometimes filled with the same. These huts generally cost 
the master nothing — they are commonly built by the negroes 
at night, and on Sundays. When a slave of a neighbouring 
plantation takes a wife, or to use the phrase common at the 
south * takes up ' with one of the women, he builds a hut, 
and it is called her house. Upon entering these huts (not as 
comfortable in many instances as the horse stable), gene- 
rally, you will find no chairs, but benches and stools ; no 
table, no bedstead, and no bed, except a blanket or two, and 
a few rags or moss ; in some instances a knife or two, but 
very rarely a fork. You may also find a pot or skillet, and 
generally a number of gourds, which serve them instead of 
bowls and plates. The cruelties practised on those secluded 
plantations, the judgment day alone can reveal. O brother, 
could I summon ten slaves from ten plantations that 1 could 
name, and have them give but one year's history of their 
bondage, it would thrill the land with horror. Those over- 
seers who follow the business of overseeing for a livelihood, 
are generally the most unprincipled and abandoned of men. 
Their wages are regulated according to their skill in extorting 
labour. The one who can make the most bags of cotton, 
with a given number of hands, is the one generally sought 
after ; and there is a competition among them to see who 
shall make the largest crop according to the hands he works. 
I ask, what can be the condition of the poor slaves, under 
the unlimited power of such men, in whom, by the long 
continued practice of the most heart-rending cruelties, every 
feeling of humanity has been obliterated. But it may be 
asked, cannot the slaves have redress by appealing to their 
masters ? In many instances it is impossible, as their masters 



40 



live hundreds of miles off. There are perhaps thousands in 
the northern slave states (and many in the free states) who 
own plantations in the southern slave states, and many more 
spend their summers at the north, or at the various watering 
places. But what would the slaves gain, if they should 
appeal to the master? He has placed the overseer over 
them, with the understanding that he will make as large a 
crop as possible, and that he is to have entire control, and 
manage them according to his own judgment. Now, suppose 
that in the midst of the season the slaves make complaint of 
cruel treatment; the master cannot get along without an 
overseer ; it is perhaps very sickly on the plantation ; he 
dares not risk his own life there ; overseers are all engaged 
at that season, and if he takes part with his slaves against 
the overseer, he would destroy his authority, and very likely 
provoke him to leave his service, which would of course be a 
very great injury to him. Thus, in nineteen cases out of 
twenty, self-interest would prevent the master from paying 
any attention to the complaints of his slaves. And, if any 
should complain, it would of course come to the ears of the 
overseer, and the complainant would be inhumanly punished 
for it. 

• " Clothing. — The rule, where slaves are hired out, is two 
suits of clothes per year, one pair of shoes, and one blanket; 
but as relates to the great body of slaves, this cannot be 
called a general rule. On many plantations, the children 
under ten or twelve years old go entirely naked — or, if 
clothed at all, they have nothing more than a shirt. The 
cloth is of the coarsest kind, far from being durable or 
warm ; and their shoes frequently come to pieces in a few 
weeks. I have never known any provision made or time 
allowed for the washing of clothes. If they wish to wash, 
as they have generally but one suit, they go after their day's 
toil to some stream, build a fire, pull off their clothes and 
wash them in the stream, and dry them by the fire ; and in 
some instances they wear their clothes until they are worn 
out, without washing. I have never known an instance of 
a slaveholder putting himself to any expense, that his slaves 
might have decent clothes for the sabbath. If, by making 
baskets, brooms, mats, &c, at night or on Sundays, the 
slaves can get money enough to buy a Sunday suit, very 
well. I have never known an instance of a slaveholder 



41 



furnishing his slaves with stockings or mittens. I know that 
the slaves suffer much, and no doubt many die in consequence 
of not being well clothed. " 

Testimony of Mr. Lemuel Sapington, a native of Mary- 
land, who was formerly a slave-driver, but now a repentant 
sinner. 

" I was born in Maryland, afterwards moved to Virginia, 
where I commenced the business of farming and trafficking 
in slaves. In my neighbourhood the slaves were quartered, 
The description generally given of negro quarters is correct. 
The quarters are without floors, and not sufficient to keep off 
the inclemency of the weather; they are uncomfortable, 
both in summer and winter. The food there consists of 
potatoes, pork, and corn, which were given to them daily, 
by weight and measure. The sexes were huddled together 
promiscuously. Their clothing is made by themselves after 
night, though sometimes assisted by the old women who are 
no longer able to do out-door work, consequently it is harsh 
and uncomfortable. I have frequently seen those of both 
sexes who have not attained the age of twelve years go 
naked. Their punishments are invariably cruel. For the 
slightest offence, such as taking a hen's egg, I have seen 
them stripped and suspended by their hands, their feet tied 
together, a fence rail of ordinary size placed between their 
ancles, and then most cruelly whipped, until from head to 
foot they were completely lacerated ; a pickle, made for the 
purpose of salt and water, would then be applied by a fellow- 
slave, for the purpose healing the wounds as well as giving 
pain ; then taken down, and without the least respite, sent 
to work with their hoe. 

" Pursuing my assumed right of driving souls, T went to 
the southern parts of Virginia for the purpose of trafficking 
in slaves. In that part of the state, the cruelties practised 
upon the slaves are far greater than where I lived. The 
punishments there often resulted in death to the slave. There 
was no law for the slave, but that of the overseer's whip. In 
that part of the country the slaves receive nothing for food 
but corn in the ear, which has to be prepared for baking 
after working hours, by grinding it with a handmill. This 
they take to the fields with them, and prepare it for eating, 
by holding it on their hoes over a fire made by a stump. 



42 



Among the gangs are often young women, who bring their 
children to the fields, and lay them in a fence corner, while 
they are at work, only being permitted to nurse them at the 
option of the overseer. When a child is three weeks old, a 
woman is considered in working order. I have seen a woman 
with her young child strapped to her back labouring the whole 
day, beside a man, perhaps the father of the child, and he 
not being able to give her any assistance, himself being 
under the whip : the uncommon humanity of the driver 
allowing her the comfort to do so. I was then selling a 
drove of slaves, which I had brought by water from Balti- 
more, my conscience not allowing me to drive,, as was gene- 
rally the case, uniting the slaves by collars and thus driving 
under the whip. About that time an unaccountable some- 
thing, which I now know was an interposition of Providence, 
prevented me from prosecuting any farther this unholy traffic; 
but though 1 had quitted it, I still continued to live in a slave- 
state, witnessing every day its evil effects upon my fellow- 
beings. Among which was a heart-rending scene that took 
place in my father's house, which led me to leave a slave- 
state, as well as the imaginary comforts arising from slavery. 
On preparing for my removal to the state of Pennsylvania, it 
became necessary for me to go Louisville, in Kentucky, 
where, if possible, I became more horrified with the imposi- 
tions practised upon the negro than before. There a slave 
was sold to go farther south, and was handcuffed for the 
purpose of keeping him secure ; but, choosing death rather 
than slavery, he jumped overboard, and was drowned. When 
I returned, four weeks afterwards, his body, that had floated 
three miles below, was yet unburied. One fact — it is im- 
possible for a person to pass through a slave-state, if he has 
his eyes open, without beholding every day cruelties repug- 
nant to humanity." 

Testimony of President Edwards, the younger, before 
the Connecticut Abolition Society, 1791. 

' ' From these drivers, for every imagined, as well as real 
neglect or want of exertion, they receive the lash — the smack 
of which is all day long in the ears of those who are on the 
plantations or in the vicinity ; and it is used with such 
dexterity and severity, as not only to lacerate the skin, but 
to tear out small portions of the flesh at every stroke. 



43 



" Many, many are knocked down ; some have their eyes 
beaten out ; some have an arm or a leg broken, or chopped 
off ; and many, for a small or for no crime at all, have been 
beaten to death, merely to gratify the fury of an enraged 
master or overseer. " 



TORTURES BY IRON COLLARS, CHAINS, FETTERS, 
HANDCUFFS, ETC. 



The slaves are often tortured by iron collars, with long 
prongs or " horns," and sometimes bells attached to them ; 
they are made to wear chains, handcuffs, fetters, iron clogs, 
bars, rings, and bands of iron upon their limbs, ircui marks 
upon their faces, iron gags in their mouths, &c. 

In proof of this I give the testimony of slaveholders them- 
selves, under their own names, in the form of extracts from 
their own advertisements in southern papers, in which, de- 
scribing their runaway slaves, they specify the iron collars, 
handcuffs, chains, fetters, &c, which they wore upon their 
necks, wrists, ankles, and other parts of their bodies. 

In doing this I will only give the name of the advertiser, 
the name and date of the newspaper containing the adver- 
tisement, with the place of publication, and only so much of 
the advertisement as will give the particular fact, proving 
the truth of the assertion contained in the general head. 



WITNESSES. 

William Toler, sheriff of Simpson 
county, Mississippi, Sept. 22, 1838. 

Mr. James R. Green, in the "Bea- 
con," Greensborough, Alabama, Aug. 
23, 1838. 

Mr. T. Euggy, New Orleans, Gal- 
latin-street, between hospital and bar- 
racks, New Orleans " Bee," Oct. 27, 
1837. 

Mr. John Henderson, Washington 
county, Missouri, in the " Grand Gulf 
Advertiser," Aug. 29, 1838. 



TESTIMONY. 

Was committed to jail, a yellow boy 
named Jim ; had on a large lock chain 
around his neck. 

Ran away, a negro named Squire ; 
had on a chain locked with a house 
lock around his neck. 

Ran away, negress Caroline ; had 
on a collar with one prong turned 
down. 

Ran away, a black woman, Betsy ; 
had an iron bar on her right leg. 



44 



WITNESSES. 

William Dyer, sheriff, Claiborne, 
Louisiana, in the "Herald," Natchi- 
toches, July 26, 1837. 

H. W. Rice, sheriff, Colton district, 
South Carolina, in the " Charleston 
Mercury," Sept. 1, 1838. 

Mr. A. Murat, Baton Rouge, in the 
New Orleans "Bee," June 20, 1837. 

Mr. J. Macoin, 177, Ann-st. New 
Orleans, in the "Bee," Aug. 11, 1838. 

Menard, Brothers, parish of Ber- 
nard, Louisiana, in the New Orleans 
"Bee," Aug. 18, 1838. 

H. Gridly, sheriff of Adams county, 
Missouri, in the "Memphis (Tenn.) 
Times," Sept. 1834. 

Mr. Lambre, in the " Natchitoches 
(La) Herald," March 29, 1837. 

Mr. Ferdinand Lemos, N. Orleans, 
in the "Bee," Jan. 29, 1838. 

Mr. Charles Curcner, New Orleans, 
in the " Bee," July 2, 1838. 



Mr. P. T. Manning, Hunts ville, 
Alabama, in the " Huntsville Advo- 
cate," Oct. 23, 1838. 

Mr. William L. Lambeth, Lynch- 
burgh, Virginia, in the "Moulton 
Which" (Ala), Jan. 30, 1836. 

Mr. D. F. Guex, secretary of the 
Steam Cotton Press Company, New 
Orleans, in the " Commercial Bulle- 
tin," May 27, 1838. 

Mr. Francis Durett, Lexington, 
Alabama, in the " Huntsville Demo- 
crat," March 8, 1838. 



TESTIMONY. 

Was committed to jail, a negro 
named Ambrose ; has a ring of iron 
around his neck. 

Committed to jail, a negro named 
Patrick, about forty-five years old, 
and is handcuffed. 

Ran away, the negro Manuel, much 
marked with irons. 

Ran away, the negress Fanny ; had 
on an iron band about her neck. 

Ran away, a negro named John, 
having an iron around his right foot. 

Was committed to jail, a negro 
boy; had on a large neck iron, with 
a huge pair of horns, and a large bar 
or band of iron on his left leg. 

Ran away, the negro boy Teams; 
he had on his neck an iron collar. 

Ran away, the negro George ; he 
had on his neck an iron collar, the 
branches of which had been taken off. 

Ran away, the negro Hown ; has a 
ring of iron on his left foot. Also, 
Grisee, his wife, having a ring and 
chain on the left leg. 

Ran away, a negro boy named 
James — said boy was ironed when he 
left me. 

Ran away, Jim; had on when he 
escaped a pair of chain handcuffs. 

Ran away, Edmund Coleman ; it is 
supposed he must have iron shackles 
on his ankles. 

Ran away, a mulatto; had on when 
he left a pair of handcuffs, and a pair 
of drawing chains. 



It is needless for me to quote all of these southern papers 
to bear witness against the iron-hearted slaveholders, as such 
advertisements are as common as the advertised sales of any 
other goods or property. The brute creation could not 
certainly be more cruelly treated than the fettered slaves of 
these free southern states. 

The New Orleans Courier says — " We saw one of those 
miserable beings — he had a large hole in his head — his body 
from head to foot was covered with scars and filled with 
worms.' ' 

The New Orleans Mercantile Advertiser says — " Seven 



45 



poor unfortunate slaves were found — some chained to the 
floor, others with chains around their neck, fastened to the 
ceiling ; and one poor old man, upwards of sixty years of 
age, chained hand and foot, and made fast to the floor, in a 
kneeling position. His head bore the appearance of having 
been beaten until it was broken, and the worms were actually 
to be seen making a feast of his brains? A woman had her 
back literally cooked (if the expression may be used) with 
the lash ; the very bones might be seen projecting through 
the skin V 

The New Orleans Mercantile Advertiser says — " A negro 
woman was found chained, covered with bruises and wounds 
from severe flogging. All the apartments were then forced 
open. In a room on the ground floor two more were found 
chained, and in a deplorable condition. Up stairs and in the 
garret, four more were found chained ; some so weak as to 
be unable to walk, and all covered with wounds and sores. 
One mulatto boy declares himself to have been chained for 
five months, being fed daily with only a handful of meal, and 
receiving every morning the most cruel treatment." 

John M. Nelson, Esq., a native of Virginia, now a highly 
respected citizen of Highland county, Ohio, and a member 
of the Presbyterian church in Hillsborough, in a recent letter 
states the following : " In Staunton, Virginia, at the house 
of Mr. Robert McDowell, a merchant of that place, I once 
saw a coloured woman, of intelligent and dignified appear- 
ance, who appeared to be attending to the business of the 
house, with an iron collar around her neck, with horns or 
prongs extending out on either side, and up, until they met 
at something like a foot above her head, at which point there 
was a bell attached. This yoke, as they called it, I under- 
stood, was to prevent her from running away, or to punish 
her for having done so. I had frequently seen men with iron 
collars, but this was the first instance that I recollect to have 
seen a female thus degraded. V 

The following testimony is from Mr. William Armstrong, 
a highly respected citizen of Muskingum county, Ohio : — 
" While lying at Alexandria, on Red River, Louisiania, he 
saw a slave brought to a blacksmith's shop, and a collar of 
iron fastened around his neck, with two pieces riveted to the 
sides, meeting some distance above his head. At the top of 
the arch, thus formed, was attached a large cow-bell, the 



46 



motion of which, while walking the streets, made it necessary 
for the slave to hold his hand to one of its sides to steady it. 

" In New Orleans he saw several with iron collars, with 
horns attached to them. The first he saw had three prongs 
projecting from the collar ten or twelve inches, with the 
letter S on the end of each. He says iron collars are fre- 
quent there. " 

The two following facts are stated upon the authority of 
the Rev. Joseph G. Wilson, pastor of the Presbyterian 
church in Salem, Washington county, Indiana. 

" In Bath Co., Kentucky, Mr. L., in the year 1833, while 
intoxicated, in a fit of rage whipped a female slave until she 
fainted and fell on the floor. Then he whipped her to get 
up. Then with red hot tongs he burnt off her ears, and 
whipped her again ! but all in vain. He then ordered his 
negro men to carry her to the cabin. There she was found 
dead next morning. 

" One Wall, in Chester district, South Carolina, owned a 
slave, whom he hired to his brother-in-law, William Beckman, 
for whom the slave worked eighteen months, and worked well. 
Two weeks after returning to his master, he ran away on 
account of bad treatment. To induce him to return, the 
master sold him nominally to his neighbour, to whom the 
slave gave himself up, and by whom he was returned to his 
master : — punishment stripes. To prevent escape a bar of 
iron was fastened with three bands at the waist, knee, and 
ankle. That night he broke the bands and bar, and escaped. 
Next day he was taken and whipped to death, by three men, 
the master, Thorn, and the overseer. First, he was whipped 
and driven towards home, on the way he attempted to 
escape, and was shot at by the master, caught and knocked 
down with the butt of the gun by Thorn. In attempting to 
cross a ditch he fell, with his feet down and face on the 
bank. They whipped again to get him up, but in vain ; he 
died. His soul ascended to God, to be a swift witness 
against his oppressors. This took place at twelve o'clock. 
Next evening an inquest was held. Of thirteen jurors, 
summoned by the coroner, nine said it was murder ; two said 
it was manslaughter, and two said it was justifiable ! He 
was bound over to court, tried, and acquitted — not even 
fined." 

The following atrocities were perpetrated by Madame La 



47 



Laurie upon her slaves in New Orleans, in 1834. I give 
them as they appeared in the New Orleans Bee. 

" Upon entering one of the apartments, the most appalling 
spectacle met their eyes. Seven slaves, more or less horribly 
mutilated, were seen suspended by the neck, with their limbs 
apparently stretched and torn, from one extremity to the 
other. They had been confined for several months in the 
situation from which they had thus been rescued ; and had 
been merely kept in existence to prolong their sufferings, and 
to make them to taste all that a most refined cruelty could 
inflict." 

Mr. Henry P. Thompson, a native of Nicholasville, Ken- 
tucky, made the following statement at a public meeting in 
Lane Seminary, Ohio, in 1833. He was at that time a slave- 
holder. 

" Cruelties," said he, " are so common, I hardly know 
what to relate. But one fact occurs to me just at this time, 
that happened in the village where I live. The circumstances 
are these. A coloured man, a slave, ran away. As he was 
crossing Kentucky river, a white man who suspected him, 
attempted to stop him. The negro resisted. The white 
man procured help, and finally succeeded in securing him. 
He then wreaked his vengeance on him for resisting; flogging 
him till he was not able to walk. They then put him on a 
horse, and came on with him ten miles to Nicholasville. 
When they entered the village, it was noticed that he sat 
upon his horse like a drunken man. It was a very hot day ; 
and whilst they were taking some refreshment, the negro sat 
down on the ground, under the shade. When they ordered 
him to go, he made several efforts before he could get up ; 
and when he attempted to mount his horse, his strength was 
entirely insufficient. One of the men struck him, and with 
an oath, ordered him to get on the horse without any more 
fuss. The negro staggered back a few steps, fell down, and 
died. I do not know if any more notice was ever taken 
of it." 

In proof of the unruly passions of these madmen, whose 
uncontrollable temper leads them to the most extravagant 
acts of despotism, we have the following testimony from the 
Rev. Thomas Savage, of Bedford, New Hampshire. 

"The following circumstance was related to me last 
summer, by my brother, now residing as a physician at 



48 



Rodney, Mississippi; and who, though a pro-slavery man, 
spoke of it in terras of reprobation, as an act of capricious, 
wanton cruelty. The planter who was the actor in it, I 
myself know; and the whole transaction is so characteristic 
of the man, that, independent of the strong authority I have, 
I should entertain but little doubt of its authenticity. He 
is a wealthy planter, residing near Natcher, eccentric, ca- 
pricious, and intemperate. On one occasion he invited a 
number of guests to an elegant entertainment, prepared in 
the true style of Southern luxury. From some cause, none 
of the guests appeared. In a moody manner, and under the 
influence, probably, of mortified pride, he ordered the over- 
seer to call the (a term by which the field hands are generally 
designated), on to the piazza. The order was obeyed, and 
the people came, c Now/ said he, 'have them seated at the 
table. Accordingly they were seated at the well furnished 
glittering table, while he and his overseer waited on them, 
and helped them to the various dainties of the feast. * Now,' 
said he, after a while, raising his voice, • take these rascals, 
and give them twenty lashes a piece. I will show them how 
to eat at my table/ The overseer in relating it said he had 
to comply, though reluctantly, with this brutal command. *' 

The following fact was witnessed by an elder of the Pres- 
byterian church in one of the slave states. His name is 
with the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery 
Society. 

I was passing through a piece of timbered land, and on 
a sudden I heard a sound as of murder; I rode in that 
direction, and at some distance discovered a naked black 
man, hung to a limb of a tree by his hands, his feet chained 
together, and a pine rail laid with one end on the chain be- 
tween his legs, and the other on the ground, to steady him ; 
and in this condition the overseer gave him four hundred 
lashes. The miserably lacerated slave was then taken down, 
and put to the care of a physician. And what do you 
suppose was the offence for which all this was done ? simply 
this ; his owner observing that he laid off corn rows too 
crooked, he replied, 4 Massa, much corn grow on crooked 
row as on straight one. This was it, this was enough. His 
overseer, boasting of his skill in managing a nigger, he was 
submitted to him, and treated as above. " 

David L. Child, of Northampton, Massachussets, secre- 



49 



tary of the United States, minister at the court of Lisbon 
during the administration of President Munroe, stated the 
following fact in an oration delivered by him in Boston, 
in 1834. 

"An honourable friend, who stands high in the State and 
in the nation, was present at the burial of a female slave in 
Mississippi, who had been whipped to death at the stake by 
her master, because she was gone longer of an errand to 
the neighbouring town, than her master thought necessary. 
Under the lash she protested that she was ill, and was 
obliged to rest in the field. To complete the climax of 
horror, she was delivered of a dead infant while undergoing 
the punishment/' 

Mr. Ezekiel Birdseye, a highly respected citizen of 
Cornwall, Litchfield county, Connecticut, who resided for 
many years at the South, furnished to the Rev. E. R. Tyler, 
editor of the Connecticut Observer, the following personal 
testimony. 

"While I lived in Limestone county, Alabama, in 1826-7, 
a tavern-keeper of the village of Moresville discovered a 
negro carrying away a piece of old carpet. It was during 
the Christmas holidays, when the slaves are allowed to visit 
their friends. The negro stated that one of the servants of 
the tavern ow r ed him some twelve and a half or twenty-five 
cents, and that he had taken the carpet in payment. This 
the servant denied. The innkeeper took the negro to a field 
near by, and whipped him cruelly. He then struck him 
with a stake, and punched him in the face and mouth, 
knocking out some of his teeth. After this, he took him 
back to the house, and committed him to the care of his son, 
who had just then come home with another young man. 
This was at evening. They whipped him by turns, with 
heavy cowskins, and made the dogs shake him. A Mr. 
Phillips, who lodged at the house, heard the cruelty during 
the night. On getting up he found the negro in the bar 
room, terribly mangled with the whip, and his flesh so torn by 
the dogs, that the cords were bare. He remarked to the 
landlord that he was dangerously hurt, and needed care. 
The landlord replied that he deserved none. Mr. Phillips 
went to a neighbouring magistrate, who took the slave home 
with him, when he soon died. The father and son were both 
tried, and acquitted ! ! A suit was brought however, for 

D 



50 



damages in behalf of the owner of the slave, a young ladv 
by the name of Agnes Jones. / was on the jury when these 
facts were stated on oath. Two men testified, one that he 
would have given £1000 for him, the other £900 or £950. 
The jury found the latter sum. 

u At Union court-house, South Carolina, a tavern-keeper 
by the name of Samuel Davis, procured the conviction aDd 
execution of his own slave, for stealing a cake of gingerbread 
from a grogshop. The slave raised the latch of the back 
door, and took the cake doing no other injury. The shop- 
keeper, whose name was Charles Gordon was willing to for- 
give him, but his master procured his conviction and exe- 
cution by hanging. The slave had but one arm ; and an 
order on the State treasury by the court that tried him, 
which also assessed his value, brought him more money than 
he could have obtained for the slave in market." 

Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Mariotta College, Ohio, 
informs us, that he has the following statement from a fellow- 
student in whom he places the greatest confidence. 

" I have seen at least fifteen droves of human cattle, 
passing by us on their way to the South ; and I do not re- 
collect an exception^ where there were not more or less of 
them chained together." 

Mr. George P. C. Hussey, of Fayetteville, Franklin 
County, Pennsylvania, writes thus : 

i( I was born and raised in Hagerstown, Washington 
county, Maryland, where slavery is perhaps milder than in 
any other part of the slave States; and yet I have seen 
hundreds of coloured men and women chained together, two 
by two, and driven to the South. I have seen slaves tied up, 
and lashed till the blood ran down to their heels." 

Mr. Giddixgs, member of Congress from Ohio, in his 
speech in the house of representatives, Feb. 13, 1839, made 
the following statement : 

" On the beautiful avenue in front of the capitol, member 
of Congress during this session, have been compelled to turn 
aside from their path, to permit acoffle of slaves, males and 
females, chained to each other by their necks, to pass on their 
way to this national slave market." 

Testimony of Mr. William Hansborough, of Culpeper 
county, Virginia, the " owner" of sixty slaves. 

i( I saw a slave taken out of prison by his master, on a 



51 



hot summer's day, and driven, by said master, on the road 
before him, till he dropped down dead." 



BRANDINGS, MAIMINGS, GUN-SHOT WOUNDS, &C. 

The slaves are often branded with hot irons, pursued with 
fire-arms, and shot hunted with dogs and torn by them, 
shockingly maimed with knives, dirks, &c, as we shall see 
in the following advertisements. 



WITNESSES. 

Mr. Micajah Ricks, Nash county, 
N. Carolina, in the " Raleigh Stand- 
ard," July, 18, 1838. 



Mr. Asa B. Metcalf, Kingston, 
Adams county, Mi. in the "Natcher 
Courier," June 15, 1832. 

Mr. N. Overstreet, Benton, Yazoo, 
county Mi. in the Lexington (Ken- 
tucky) Observer," July 22, 1838. 

Mr. R. P. Carney, Clark co. Ala- 
bama, in the "Mobile Register." Dec. 
22, 1832. 

Mr. J. Guyler, Savannah Georgia, 
in the « Republican," April 12, 1837. 

J. A. Brown, jailor, Charleston, 
South Carolina, in the " Mercury ," 
June 12, 1837. 

Mr. J. Scrivener, Herring Bay, Ann 
Arundel co. Maryland, in the " Ana- 
polis Republican," April 18, 1837. 

Madame Burvant, corner of Chartres 
and Toulouse streets, New Orleans, 
in the " Bee," Dec. 21, 1838. 

Mr. O. U. Lains, on the "Helena 
(Ark.) Journal," June 1. 1833. 

Mr. R. U. Sizer, in the " Grand 
Gulf Advertizer," July 8, 1837. 



Mr. Nicholas Edmunds, in the " Pe- 
i tersburgh (Va.) Intelligencer," May 
j 22, 1838. 

I D 



TESTIMONY. 

Ran away, a negro woman and two 
children ; a few days before she went 
off I burnt her with a hot iron on the 
left side of her face. I tried to make 
the letter M. 

Ran away, Mary, a black woman, 
has a scar on her back and right arm 
near the shoulder, caused by a rifle 
ball. 

Ran away, a negro man, named 
Henry, his left eye out, some scars 
from a dirk on and under his left arm, 
and much scarred with the whip. 

One hundred dollars reward for a 
negro fellow, Pompey, forty years old. 
He is branded on the left jaw. 

Ran away, Laman, an old negro 
man, grey, has only one eye. 

Committed to jail, a negro man, has 
no toes on his left foot. 

Ran away, a negro man, Elijah, has 
has a scar on his left cheek apparently 
occasioned by a shot. 

Ran away, a negro woman named 
Rachel, has lost all her toes, except 
the large one. 

Ran away, Sam, he was shot a short 
time since through the hand, and has 
several shots in his left arm and side. 

Ran away, my negro man Dennis. 
Said negro has been shot in the left 
arm, between the shoulder and elbow, 
which has paralyzed the left hand. 

Ran away, my negro man, named 
Simon, he has been shot badly in his 
back and right arm. 

2 



52 



WITNESSES. 
Mr. J. Bishop, Bishopsville, Sump- 
ire district, South Carolina, in the 
" Camden Journal," March 4, 1837. 



Mr. S. Neyle, Little Ogeechee, 
Georgia, in the ft Savannah Repub- 
lican/' July 3, 1837. 

Mrs. Sarah Walsh, Mobile, Ala- 
bama, in the " Georgia Journal," 
March 27, 1837. 

Mr. J. P. Ashford, Adams county, 
Mi., in the "Natcher Courier," Aug. 
24, 1838. 

Mr. Ely Townsend, Pike county, 
Alabama, in the " Pensacola Gazette 
Sept. 16, 1837. 



S. B. Murphy, jailor, Irvington, 
Georgia, in the " Milledgeville Jour- 
nal," May 29, 1838. 

Mr. A. Luminais, parish of St. John, 
Louisiana, in the " New Orleans Bee," 
March 3, 1838. 

Mr. Isaac Johnson, Pulaski county, 
Georgia, in the "Milledgeville Jour- 
nal," June 19, 1838. 



Mr. Thos. Hudnall, Madison county, 
Mi. in the " Vicksburgh Register," 
Sept. 5, 1838. 

Mr. John M'Murrain, Columbus, 
Georgia, in the "Southern Sun," Aug. 
7, 1838. 

Mr. Moses Orme, Annapolis, Mary- 
land, in the " Annapolis Republican," 
June 20, 1837. 

William Strickland, jailor, Kershaw 
district, S. C, in the "Camden Cou- 
rier," July 8, 1837. 

The Editor of the " Grand Gulf 
Advertiser," Dec. 7, 1838. 

Mr. Wm. Bateman, in the " Grand 
Gulf Advertizer," Dec. 7, 1837. 



Mr. B. G. Simmons, in the " South- 
ern Argus," May 30, 1837. ' 



TESTIMONY. 

Ran away, a negro named Arthur, 
has a considerable scar across his 
breast and each aim, made by a 
knife ; loves to talk much of the good- 
ness of God. 

Ran away, George ; he has a sword 
cut lately received on his left arm. 

Twenty-five dollars reward for my 
man Isaac ; he has a scar on his fore- 
head caused by a blow, and one on his 
back made by a shot from a pistol. 

Ran away, a negro girl called Mary, 
has a snsall scar ov er her eye, a good 
many teeth missivg ; the letter A is 
branded on her cheek and forehead. 

Ran away, negro Ben, has a scar on 
his rig-lit hand, his thumb and fore- 
being injured by being shot last fall, a 
part of the bone came out ; he has 
also one or two large scars on his back 
and hips. 

Committed, a negro man, is very 
badly shot in the right side and right 
hand. 

Detained at the jail, a mulatto named 
Tom, has a scar on the right cheek, 
and appears to have been burnedwith 
powder on the face. 

Ran away, a negro man named Ned, 
three of his fingers are drawn into the 
palm of his hand by a cut, has a scar 
on the back of his neck, nearly half 
round, done by a knife. 

Ran away, a negro named Hamble- 
ton, limps on his left foot, where he 
was shot a few weeks ago, while run- 
away. 

Ran away, a negro boy named Mose,. 
he has a wound in the right shoulder, 
near the back bone, which was occa- 
sioned by a rifle shot. 

Ran away, my negro man Bill ; he 
has a fresh wound on his head above 
his ear. 

Committed to jail, a negro ; says his 
name is Cuffee ; he is lame in one 
knee, occasioned by a shot. 

Ran away, Joshua; his thumb is 
off of his left hand. 

Ran away, William ; scar over his 
left eye, one between his eyebrows, 
one on his breast, and his right leg has 
been broken. 

Ran away, Mark, his left arm has 
been broken, right leg also. 



53 



WITNESSES. 

Mr. James Artop, in the " Macon 
(Georgia) Messenger," May 25, 1837. 

J. L. Jolly, sheriff of Clinton county, 
Mi. in the " Clinton Gazette," July 
23, 1836. 



Mr. Thomas Led with, Jacksonville, 
East Florida, in the " Charleston (S. 
Carolina) Courier," Sept. 1, 1838. 

Mr. Joseph James, sen., Pleasant- 
ridge, Paulding county, Georgia, in 
the " Milledgeville Union," Nov. 7, 
1837. 

Mr. William Riley, Orangeburg dis- 
trict, South Carolina, in the " Colum- 
bia Telescope," Nov. 11, 1837. 

Mr. Samuel Mason, Warren county, 
Mi., in the " Vicksburgh Register," 
July 18/1838. 



TESTIMONY, 

Ran away, Caleb, fifty years old, 
has an awkward gait, occasioned by 
his being shot in the thigh. 

Was committed to jail, a negro 
man, says his name is Josiah, his back 
very much scarred by the whip, and 
branded on the thigh and hips in three 
or four places, thus, J.M. the rim of 
his right ear has been bit or cut off. 

Fifty dollars reward for my fellow, 
Edward, he has a scar on the corner 
of his mouth, two cuts on and under 
his arm, and the letter E on Ms arm. 

Ran away, negro boy Ellic, has a 
scar on one of his arms from the bite 
of a dog. 

Ran away, a negro man, has a scar 
on the ankle produced by a burn, and 
a mark on his arm, resembling the 
letter S. 

Ran away, a negro man named 
Allen, he has a scar on his breast, also 
a scar under the left eye, and has two 
buck shot in his right arm. 



FLOGGINGS. 

With regard to flogging, which is the most common pun- 
ishment among the slaves, my readers will at once he con- 
vinced of its prevalence in the southern states from the fol- 
lowing advertisements which I copy. The slaves are terribly 
lacerated with whips, paddles, &c ; red pepper and salt are 
rubbed into their mangled flesh ; hot brine and turpentine 
are poured into their gashes ; and innumerable other tor- 
tures inflicted upon them. By witnesses I mean those who 
have signed the advertisements, and by testimony, merely an 
extract from the advertisements. 



WITNESSES. 

Mr. D. Judd, jailor, Davidson county, 
Tennessee, in the Nashville Ban- 
ner," Dec. 10, 1838. 

Mr. Robt. Nicoll, Dauphin street, 
between Emmanuel and Conception 
streets, Mobile, Alabama, in the 
•* Mobile Commercial Advertizer." 



TESTIMONY. 

Committed to jail as a runaway, a 
negro woman, named Martha, 17 or 
18 years of age, has numerous scars 
of the whip on her back. 

Ten dollars lor my woman Siby, 
very much scarred abont the neck and 
ears by whipping. 



54 



WITNESSES. 
Mr. Bryant Johnson, Fort Valley, 
Houston county, Georgia, in the 
" Standard of Union," Milledgeville, 
Georgia, Oct. 4 S 1838. 

Mr. James T. de Jarnett,. Vernon, 
Autanga county, Alabama, in the 
" Pensacola Gazette," July 14, 1838. 

Maurice Y. Garcia, sheriff of the 
county of Jefferson, Louisiana, in the 
" New Orleans Bee, 5 ' Aug. 14, 1838. 

R. J. Biand, sheriff of Claiborne 
county, Miss, in the " Charleston (S. 
C ) Courier," Aug. 28, 1838. 

Mr. James Noe , Red River Landing, 
Louisiana, in the " Sentinel," Vicks- 
burgh, Miss. Aug. 22, 1837. 

VVilliam Craze, jailor, Alexandria, 
Louisiana, in the " Planter Intelli- 
gencer," Sept. 26, 1838. _ 

John A. Rowland, jailor, Lumber- 
ton, North Carolina, in the "Fayette- 
ville Observer," June 20, 1838. 

J. K. Roberts, sheriff of Blount 
county, Alabama, in the "Huntsville 
Democrat," Dec. 9, 1838. 

Mr. H. VariDat, No. 23, Girod- 
street, N. O., in the " Commercial 
Bulletin," Aug. 27, 1838. 

Mr. Cornelius D. Tohn, Augusta, 
Georgia, in the " Chronicle and Sen- 
tinel," Oct. 18, 1838. 

N. H. Braseale, sheriff of Blount 
county, Alabama, in the " Huntsville 
Democrat," June 9, 1838. 

Mr. Robt. Beasley, Macon, Georgia, 
in the Georgia " Messenger," Julv 27, 
1837. 

Mr. John Rotton, Rockville, Mon- 
gomery county, Maryland, in the " Bal- 
timore Republican,'' June 13, 1838. 

D. S. Bennet, sheriff, Natchitoches, 
Louisiana, in the (i Herald," July 21, 
1838. 

Messrs. C. C. Whitehead and R. A. 
Evans, Marion, Georgia, in the Mil- 
ledge ville " Standard of Union," June 
26, 1838. 

Mr. Samuel Stewart, Greensboro', 
Alabama, in the " Southern A dvocate, " 
Huntsville, Jan 6, 1838. 

Mr. John Walker, No. 6, Bank's 
Arcade, N. O. in the u Bulletin," Aug. 
31, 1838. 



TESTIMONY. 
Ran away, a negro woman named 
Martha, some scars on her back occa- 
sioned by the whip. 

Stolen, a negro woman, Celia ; on 
examining her back you will find 
marks caused by the whip. 

Lodged in jail, a mulatto boy, having 
large marks of the ivhip on his 
shoulders and other parts of the body. 

Was committed, a negro boy named 
Tom, is much marked with the whip. 

Ran away, a negro fellow named 
Dick, has many scars on his back 
from being whipped. 

Committed to jail, a negro slave, his 
back is very badly scarred. 

Committed, a mulatto ' fellow, his 
back shows lasting impressions of the 
whip, and leaves no doubt of his being 

a slave. 

Committed to jail, a negro man, his 
back much marked by the whip. 

Ran away, the negro man named 
Jupiter, has a fresh mark of a cow- 
skin on one of his cheeks. 

Ran away, a negro man named 
Johnson, he has a great many marks 
of the whip on his back. 

Committed to jail, a negro slave 
named James, much scarred with a 
whip on his back. 

Ran away, my man Fountain, he is 
marked on the back with the whip. 

Ran away, Bill, has several large 
scars on his back from a severe whip- 
ping in early life. 

Committed to jail, a negro boy, who 
calls ^.himself Joe ; said negro bears 
marks of the whip. 

Ran away, negro fellow John ; from 
being whipped has scars on his back, 
arms, and thighs. 

Ran away, a boy named Jem, with 
the marks of the whip on the small of 
the back, reaching round to the flank. 

Ran away, the mulatto boy Quash, 
considerably marked on the back and 
other places with the lash. 



55 



WITNESSES. TESTIMONY. 

Mr. Jesse Beene, Cahawba, Ala- Ran away, my negro man Billy, he 

bama, in the " State Intelligencer/' has the marks of the whip. 
Tuskaloosa, Dec. 25, 1837. 

Mr. John Turner, Thomastown, Up- Left, my negro man George, he has 

son county, Georgia, in the " Standard a great many scars from the lash. 
of Union/' Milledgeville, June 26, 
1838. 

James Derrah, deputy sheriff, Clai- Committed to jail, negro man Toy s 

borne county, Mi., in the " Port Gib- he has been badly whipped, 
son Correspondent," April 15, 1837. 

S. B. Murphy, sheriff, Wilkinson Brought to jail, a negro man named 

county, Georgia, in the Milledgeville George, he has a great many scars 

" Journal," May 15, 1838. from the lash. 

Mr. L. E. Cooner, Bramhville, One hundred dollars reward, for my 

Orangeburgh district, South Carolina, negro Glasgow, and Kate his wife, 

in the ]Macon " Messenger, May 25, Glasgow is 24 years old, has marks of 

1837. the whip on his back ; Kate is 26, has 

a scar on her cheek, and several marks 
of the whip. 

John H. Hand, jailor of the parish Committed to jail, a negro boy 

of West Feliciana, Louisiana, in the named John, about 17 years old, his 

" St. Francisville Journal/' July 6, back badly marked with the whip, his 

1837. upper lip and chin severely bruised. 

The foregoing testimony is, as the reader perceives, that of 
the slaveholders themselves, voluntarily certifying to the out- 
rages which their own hands have committed upon defence- 
less and innocent men and women over whom they have 
assumed authority $ nor is it reasonable to imagine that 
these men would not exaggerate their own cruelties. 

I shall now present the testimony of a large number of 
individuals, with their names and residences, of persons who 
witnessed the inflictions to which they testify ; many of them 
have been slaveholders, and all residents for longer or shorter 
periods in slave states. 

Rev. John H. Curtis, a native of Keep Creek, Norfolk 
county, Virginia, now a local preacher of the Methodist 
Episcopal church in Portage county, Ohio, states as follows : 

" In 1829 or 1830, one of my father's slaves was accused 
of taking the key to the office and stealing four or five 
dollars ; he denied it. A constable of the name of Hull 
was called ; he took the negro, very deliberately tied his 
hands, and whipped him till the blood ran freely down his 
legs. By this time Hull appeared tired, and stopped ; he 
then took a rope, put a slip noose around his neck, and told 
the negro he was going to kill him, at the same time drew 
the rope and began whipping. The negro fell 3 his cheeks 



56 



looked as though they would burst with strangulation. Hull 
whipped and kicked him till I really thought he was going to 
kill him ; when he ceased the negro was in a complete gore 
of blood from head to foot." 

Samuel Ellison, a member of the Society of Friends, 
formerly of Southampton county, Virginia, now of Marl- 
borough Stark county, Ohio, gives the following testimony : — 

tc While a resident of Southampton county, Virginia, I 
knew two men after having been severely treated, endeavour 
to make their escape. In this they failed, were taken, tied 
to trees, and whipped to death by their overseer. I lived a 
mile from the negro quarters, and at that distance, could 
frequently hear the screams of the poor creatures when 
beaten, and could also hear the blows given by the overseer 
with some heavy instrument." 

The following statement is furnished by Major Nye, of 
Putnam, Muskingum county, Ohio. 

" About four weeks since I had a conversation with Mr. 
Porter, a respectable citizen of Morgan county, of this 
State ; of about fifty years of age. He told me he formerly 
travelled about five years in the Southern states, and that 
on one occasion he stopped at a private house to stay all 
night; (I think it was in Virginia) while he was conversing 
with the man, his wife came in and complained that the 
wench had broke some article in the kitchen, and that she 
must be whipped. He took the woman into the door yard, 
stripped her clothes down to her hips, tied her hands to- 
gether, and drawing them up to a limb, so that she could 
just touch the ground, took a very large cowskin whip, and 
commenced flogging , he said that every stroke first raised 
the skin, and immediately the blood came through ; this he 
continued until the blood stood in a puddle at her feet. He 
then turned to my informant and said, ' Well, Yankee, what 
do you think of that V 99 

Extract of a letter from Geritt Smith, Esq. of Peter- 
borough, New York. 

Peterborough, Dec, 1, 1838. 

[To the Editor of the Union Herald.] 

" My Dear Sir : — You will be happy to hear that the 
two fugitive slaves, to whom in the brotherly love of your 
heart, you gave the use of your horse, are still making un* 



57 



disturbed progress towards the monarchical land whither 
republican slaves make their escape for the enjoyment of 
liberty. They had eaten their breakfast, and were seated in 
my waggon, before day dawn this morning. 

" Fugitive slaves have before taken my house in their way, 
but never any whose lips and persons made so forcible an 
appeal to my sensibilities, and kindled in me so much ab- 
horrence of the hell-concocted system of American Slavery. 

" The fugitives exhibited their bare backs to myself and a 
number of my neighbours. William's back is comparatively 
scarred. But I speak within bounds, when I say, that one 
third to one half of the whole surface of the back and 
shoulders of poor Scott, consists of scars and whales resulting 
from innumerable gashes, His natural complexion being 
yellow, and the callous places being nearly black, his back 
and shoulders remind you of a spotted animal. " 

The Louisville Reporter (Kentucky), Jan. 15, 1839, con- 
tains the report of a trial for inhuman treatment of a female 
slave. The following is some of the testimony given in 
court 

" Dr. Constant testified that he saw Mrs. Maxwell at the 
kitchen door, whipping the negro severely, without being 
particular whether she struck her in the face or not. The 
negro was lacerated by the whip, and the blood flowing. 
Soon after on going down the steps, he saw quantities of 
blood on them, and on returning, saw them again. She had 
been thinly clad, barefooted in very cold weather. Some- 
times she had shoes — sometimes not. In the beginning of 
winter she had linsey dresses, since then calico ones. Dur- 
ing the last four months, had noticed many scars on her 
person. At one time had one of her eyes tied up for a week. 
During the last three months seemed declining, and had 
become stupid. Mr. Winters was passing along the street, 
heard cries, looked up through the window that was hoisted, 
saw the boy whipping her, as much as forty or fifty licks, 
while he staid. The girl was stripped down to the hips. 
The whip seemed to be a cowhide. Whenever she turned her 
face to him, he would hit her across the face either with the 
butt end or small end of the whip to make her turn her back 
round square to the lash, that he might get a fair blow at her." 

Mr. Rankin, who is a native of Tennessee, in his letters 
on slavery, published some years since, says: — 



58 



tf A respectable gentleman, who is now a citizen of Flem- 
ingsburg, Fleming county, Kentucky, when in the state of 
South Carolina, was invited by a slaveholder, to take a walk 
with him to view his farm. He complied with the invitation 
thus given, and in their walk they came to the place where 
the slaves were at work, and found the overseer whipping 
one of them very severely, for not keeping pace with one of 
his fellows. In vain the poor fellow alleged that he was 
sick, and could not work. The master seemed to think all 
was well enough, hence he and the gentleman passed on. 
In the space of an hour they returned the same way, and 
found that the poor slave, who had been whipped as they 
passed by the field of labour, was actually dead !" 

Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta college, Ohio, 
and formerly secretary of the Colonization Society in that 
village, has published the following statement, on the autho- 
rity of Mr. Gilden an inhabitant of Marietta, Ohio, who was 
an eye witness, and whose words I shall now quote. 

M A negro was tied up, and flogged until the blood ran 
down and filled his shoes, so that when he raised either foot 
and set it down again, the blood would run over their tops. 
I could not look on any longer, but turned away in horror; 
the whipping was continued to the number of five hundred 
lashes, as I understood ; a quart of spirits of turpentine was 
then applied to his lacerated body. The same negro came 
down to my boat, to get some apples, and was so weak from 
his wounds and loss of blood, that he could not get up the 
bank, but fell to the ground. The crime for which the 
negro was whipped was that of telling the other negroes, 
that the overseer had lain with his wife. 19 

CROPPING. 

Another inhuman method of marking slaves, so that they 
may be easily described and detected when they escape, is 
called cropping. In the following advertisements the run- 
away is described as ? cropped, 1 or a notch cut in the ear. 

WITNESSES TESTIMONY. 

Mr. F. L. C. Edwards, in the Ran away, from the plantation of 
" Southern Telegraph," Sept. 25, 1837. James Surgette, the following negroes, 

Randal has one ear cropped ; Bob has 
lost one eye, Kentucky Tom has one 
jaw broken. 



59 



WITNESSES* 
Mr. Stephen M. Jackson in the 
" Vicksbuig Register^ " March 10, 
1837. 

The Editor of the New Orleans 
" Bee," in that paper, Aug. 27, 1837. 



Benjamin Russell, deputy sheriff, 
Bibb countv, Georgia, in the " Macon 
T.legraph »Dec.25, 1837. 

Hon. H. Hitchcock, Mobile, judge 
of the Supreme Court, in the "Com- 
mercial Register," Oct. 27, 1837. 

Mrs. Elizabeth, L. Carter, near 
Groveton, Prince William County, 
Virginia, in the " National Intelli* 
geneer," Washington, D. C. June 10, 
1837. 

Mr. William D. Buckels, Natches. 
Mississippi, in the " Natches Courier," 
July 28, 1838. 

Mr. Owen Ellis, Georgeville, Mis- 
sissippi, in the "North Alabamian," 
Sept. 15, 1838. 

Mr. Zaddock Sawyer Cuthbert, Ran- 
dolph county. Georgia, in the "Mil- 
ledgeville Union," Oct. 9, 1838. 

W illiam K. Ratcliffe, sheriff Frank- 
lin countv, Mississippi, in the " Natches 
Free Trader," Aug. 23, 1838. 

Mr. William Brown, in the " Grand 
Gulf Advertiser," Aug. 29, 1838. 

U. M. Whitehead, Natches, in the 
" New Orleans Bulletin," July 21, 
1837. 

Mr. Needham, Whitefield, Aber- 
deen, Mississippi, in the " Memphes 
(Fenn) Enquirer," June 15, 1838. 

Mr. E. Han, La Grange, Fayette 
county, Fenn, in the Gallatin ' ' Union," 
June 23, 1837. 

D. Herring, Warden of Baltimore 
City jail, in the " Mary lander," Oct. 
6, 1837. 

Mr. James Marks, near Natchi- 
( toches, Louisiana, in the '* Natchi- 
toches Herald," July 21, 1838. 



TESTIMONY. 

Ran away, Anthony, one of his ears 
cut off, and his left hand cut with an 
axe. 

Fifty dollars reward for the negro 
Jim Blake, has a piece cut out of each 
ear, and the middle finger of the left 
hand cut off to the second joint. 

Brought to jail, John, left ear 
cropped. 

Ran away, the slave Ellis, he has 
lost one of his ears. 

Ran away, a negro man, Moses, 
he has lost a part of one of his ears. 



Taken up, a negro man — is very 
much scarred about the face and body, 
and has the left ear cut off. 

Ran away, George— has had the 
lower part of one of his ears bit off. 

Ran away, my negro Tom— has a 
piece bit off the top of his l ight eat } 
and his little finger is stiff. 

Committed to jail, a negro named 
Mike ; his left ear off 

Ran away, Edmund ; has a scar on 
i is right temple, and under his right 
eye, and holes in both ears. 

Ran away, Henry ; has half of one 
ear bit off. 

Ran away, Joe Dennis ; has a small 
notch in one of his ears. 

Ran away, negro boy Jack ; has a 
small crop out of his left ear. 

Was committed to jail, a negro man, 
has two scars on his forehead, and the 
top of his ear cut off. 

Stolen, a negro man named Win- 
ter; has a notch cut out of the left 
ear, and the mark of four or five buck 
shots on his legs. 



MUTILATION OF TEETH. 



Another method of marking slaves, is by drawing out, or 
breaking off one or two front teeth, commonly the upper 



60 



teeth, as the mark would in 1 
as we shall presently see. 

WITNESSES. 

Jesse Debruhl, Sheriff, Richland 
District, " Columbia (S. C. ) Teles- 
cope," Feb. 24, 1838. 

Mr. John Hunt, Blackwater Bay, 
"Pensacola Gazette," Oct. 14, 1837. 

Mr. John Frederick Branchville, 
Orangeburgh district, South Carolina, 
u Charleston Courier," June 12, 1838. 

Mr. Egbert A. Raworth, eight miles 
west of Nashville, on the Charlotte 
road, "Daily Republican Banner,'' 
Nashville, Tennessee, April 30, 1838. 

Benjamin Russell, Deputy Sheriff, 
Bibb, county, Ga. " Macon Tele- 
graph," Dec. 25, 1837. 

F. Wisner, master of the Work- 
house, u Charleston Courier," Oct. 17, 
1837. 

Mr. S. Neyle, " Savannah Republi- 
can," July 3, 1837. 

Mr. John McMurrain, near Colum- 
bus, " Georgia Messenger," Aug. % 
1838. 

Mr. John Kennedy, Stewart county, 
Louisiana, "New Orleans Bee," April 
7, 1837. 

Mr. A. J. Hutchins, near Florence, 
Alabama, "North Alabamian," Aug. 
25, 1838. 

Mr. James Purdon, 33, Common 
street, " New Orleans Bee," Feb. 13, 
1838. 

Mr. Robert Calbert,in the "Arkan- 
sas State Gazette," Aug. 22, 1838. 

Mr. A. G. A. Beazley, in the 
" Memphis Gazette," March 18, 1838. 

Mr. Samuel Townsend, in the 
" Huntsville Democrat," May 24, 1837. 

Mr. Philip A. Den, in the " Vir- 
ginia Herald," of May 24, 1837. 

Mr. John Frederick, in the " Char- 
leston Mercury," Aug. 10, 1837. 

Jesse Derhul, sheriff of Richland 
district, in the "Columbia Telegraph," 
Sept. 2, 1837. 

Mr. E. U. Gilbert, in the " Colom- 
b a Enquirer," Oct. 5, 1837. 



at case be the more obvious, 



TESTIMONY. 

Committed to jail, Ned about twen- 
ty-five years of age, has lost his two 
upper front teeth. 

One hundred dollars reward for 
Perry, one under front tooth missing, 
aged twenty-three year3. 

Ten dollars reward for Mary, one 
or two upper teeth out, about twenty- 
five years old. 

Ran away, Myal, twenty-three years 
old, one of his fore teeth out. 



Brought to jail, John, twenty-three 
years old, one fore tooth out. 

Committed to the Charleston work- 
house, Tom, two of his upper front 
teeth out, about thirty years of age. 

Ran. away, Peter, has lost two front 
teeth in the upper jaw. 

Ran away, a boy named Moses, 
some of his front teeth out. 

Ran away, Sally, her fore teeth out. 



Ran away, George Winston, two of 
his upper fore teeth out, immediately 
in front. 

Ran away, Jackson, has lost one of 
his front teeth. 

Ran away, Jack, twenty-five years, 
old, has lost one of his fore teeth. 

Ran away, Abraham, twenty, or 
twenty-two years of age, his front 
teeth out. 

Ran away, Dick, eighteen or twenty 
years of age, has one front tooth out. 

Ran away, Washington, about twen- 
ty-five years of age, has an upper front 
tooth out. 

Fifty dollars reward, for Mary, 
twenty-five or twenty- six years old, 
one or two upper teeth out. 

Committed to jail, Ned, twenty-five 
or twenty-six years old ; has lost his 
two upper front teeth out. 

Fifty dollars reward for Prince, 
twenty-five or twenty-six years old ; 
has lost some of his front teeth out io 
front on the upper jaw. 



61 



WITNESSES. TESTIMONY. 

Publisher of the " Charleston Mer- Ran away, Seller Saunders, one fore 
rury, Aug. 31, 1837. tooth out, about twenty-two years of 

age. 

Mr. Byrd M. Grace, in the "Macon Ran away, Warren, about twenty - 
Telegraph," Georgia, Oct. 16, 1838. five or twenty-six years old ; has lost 

some of his front teeth. 

Mr. George W. Barnes, in the Mil- Ran away, Henry, about twenty- 
ledgeville journal, Georgia, May 22, three years old, has one of his upper 
1837. m front teeth out. 

D. Herring, warden of Baltimore Committed to jail, Elizabeth Stew- 
jail, in Baltimore " Chronicle," Oct. ard, seventeen or eighteen years old; 
6, 1837. has one of her front teeth out. 

Mr. J, L. Colborn, in the " Hunts- Ran away, Liley, twenty-six years 
ville Democrat," Alabama, July 4, of age; one fore tooth gone. 
1837. 

Samuel Harman, jun., in the New Fifty dollars reward, for Adolphe, 
Orleans " Bee," Oct. 12, 1838. twenty-eight years old • two of his 

front teeth are missing. 
New Orleans "Bee" of May 31, Ten dollars reward.— Ran away, 
1837. Friday, May 12, Julia, a negress, eigh- 

teen or twenty years old ; he has lost 
her upper teeth, and the under ones 
are all broken. 

From the same paper. Ran away, Nelson, twenty- seven 

years old ; all his teeth are missing. 

It must now appear quite evident that these people, from 
their young age, could not have lost their teeth in any other 
way than by violence. The slaves, besides, are known to be 
possessed of remarkably sound teeth, by far superior to those 
of the whites. But the fact that their front teeth in all 
instances were those of which they were deprived, proves 
beyond a doubt the system of mutilation. 

The testimony of the Rev. Abel Brown, jun., late pastor 
of the first Baptist church, Beaver, Pensylvania. 

" I almost daily see the poor heart-broken slave making 
his way to a land of freedom. A short time since, I saw a 
noble, pious, distressed, spirit-crushed slave, a member of 
the Baptist church, escaping from a (professed Christian) 
bloodhound, to a land where he could enjoy that of which 
he had been robbed during forty years. His prayers would 
have made us all feel. I saw a Baptist sister of about the 
same age ; her children had been torn from her, her head 
was covered with fresh wounds, while her upper lip had 
scarcely ceasec to bleed, in consequence of a blow with the 
poker, which knocked out her teeth. She, too, was going to 
a land of freedom. Only a very day since, I saw a girl of 



62 



about eighteen, with a child as white as myself, aged ten 
months; a Christian master was raising her child (as well as 
his own perhaps) to sell at a southern market. She had 
heard of the intention, and at midnight took her only trea- 
sure, and travelled twenty miles on foot through a land of 
strangers : she found friends." 

Testimony of Doctor F. Julius Le Moyne, of Washing- 
ton, Pensylvania, dated Jan. 9, 1839. 

" Lest you should not have seen the statement to which 
I am going to allude, I subjoin a brief outline of the facts of 
a transaction w T hich occurred in western Virginia, adjacent 
to this country, a number of years ago, a full account of 
which was published in the " Witness " about two years 
since by Dr. Mitchell, who now resides in Pennsylvania. A 
slave boy ran away in cold weather, and during his conceal- 
ment had his legs frozen ; he returned, or was retaken. After 
some time the flesh decayed and sloughed — of course was 
offensive ; he was carried out to a field, and left there with- 
out a bed or shelter, deserted to die. His only companions 
were the house dogs, which he called to him. After several 
days and nights spent in suffering and exposure, he was 
visited by Drs. McKitchen and Mitchell in the field, of their 
own accord, having heard by report of his lamentable con- 
dition ; they remonstrated with the master; brought the boy 
to the house, amputated both legs, and he finally recovered/' 

Testimony and letter from the south, of the Hon. James 
K. Paulding, secretary of the navy of the United States. 

" At one of the taverns along the road, we were set down 
in the same room with an elderly man and a youth, who 
seemed to be well acquainted with him, for they conversed 
familiarly, and with true republican independence, for they 
did not mind who heard them. From the tenor of his con- 
versation I was induced to look particularly at the elder. He 
was telling the youth something like the following detested 
tale. He was going, it seems, to Richmond, to inquire about 
a draft for seven thousand dollars, which he had sent by 
mail, but which having not been acknowledged by his corre- 
spondent he was afraid had been stolen, and the money 
received by the thief. * I should not like to loose it,' said 
he, i for I worked hard for it. and sold many a poor d — 1 of 
a black to Carolina and Georgia to scrape it together.' He 
then went on to tell many a perfidious tale. All along the 



63 

, i 

road it seems he made it his business to inquire where lived 
! a man who might be tempted to become a party in this 
traffic, and when he had got some half dozen of those poor 
creatures, he tied their hands behind their backs, and drove 
them three or four hundred miles or more, bareheaded and 
half naked, through the southern burning sun. Fearful that 
| even southern humanity would revolt at such an exhibition 
j of human misery and human barbarity, he gave out that 
! they were runaway slaves he was carrying home to their 
, masters. On one occasion a poor black woman exposed this 
I fallacy, and told the story of her being kidnapped > and 
! when he got her into a wood out of hearing, he beat her, to 
; use his own expression, ' till her back was white.' It seems 
he married all the men and women he bought himself, be- 
cause they would sell better by being man and wife ! * But/ 
saith the y^uth, ' were you not afraid, in travelling through 
j the wild wood, and sleeping in lone houses, these slaves would 
rise and kill you V c To be sure I was,' said the other ; 'but 
I always fastened the door, put a chair on a table before it, 
so that it might wake me when falling, and slept with a 
! loaded pistol in each hand. It was a bad life, and I left it 
off as soon as I could live without it ; for many is the time I 
have separated wives from husbands, and husbands from 
wives, and parents from children ; but then I made them 
amends by marrying them as soon as I had a chance — that is 
to say, I made them call each other man and wife and sleep 
together, which is quite enough for negroes. 1 made one 
bad purchase, though/ continued he ; * I bought a young 
mulatto girl, a lively creature, a great bargain. She had 
been the favourite of her master, who had lately married. 
The difficulty was to get her to go, for she, poor creature, 
loved her master. However, I swore most bitterly I was 

only going to take her to her mother's at , and she 

went with me, though she seemed to doubt me very much. 
But when she discovered, at last, that we were out of the 
state, I thought she would go mad ; and, in fact, the next 
night she drowned herself in the river close by. I lost a 
good five hundred dollars by this trick." 

The testimony of the Rev. Horace Moulton, a minister 
of the Methodist Episcopal church in Marlborough, Massa- 
chusets, 

"Some," he says, "when other modes of punishment will 



64 



not subdue them, cat-haul them ; that is, take a cat by the 
nape of the neck and tail, or by its hind legs, and drag the 
claws across the back until satisfied. This kind of punish- 
ment, as I have understood, poisons the flesh much worse 
than the whip, and is more dreaded by the slave/' 

Extracts from the letters of Philemon Bliss, a highly 
respectable member of the bar, in Elyria, Lorain county, 
Ohio, who resided for some time in Florida. 

" I have seen a woman, a mother, compelled, in the pre- 
sence of her master and mistress, to hold up her clothes, and 
endure the whip of the driver on the naked body for more 
than twenty minutes; and while her cries would have rent 
the heart of any one, who had hardened himself to human 
suffering. Her master and mistress were conversing with 
apparent indifference. What was her crime ? She had a 
task given her for sewing, which she must finish that day. 
Late at night she must finish it ; but the stitches were too 
long, and she must be whipped. The same was repeated 
three or four nights for the same offence. I have seen a man 
tied to a tree, hands and feet, and receive 305 blows from 
the paddle on the fleshy parts of the body. Two others 
received the same punishment at the time, though I did not 
count the blows. One received 230 lashes. Their crime 
was stealing mutton. I have frequently heard the shrieks of 
the slaves, male and female, accompanied by the strokes of 
the paddles or whips, when I have not gone near the scene 
of horror. I knew not their crimes, excepting of one woman, 
which was, stealing four potatoes to eat with her bread! The 
more common number of lashes inflicted was fifty or eighty. 
I have sometimes seen men strip, and receive from one to 
three hundred strokes of the whip and paddle. My studies 
and meditations were almost nightly interrupted by the cries 
of the victims of cruelty and avarice. 

" But it would be tedious mentioning further particulars. 
The negro has no other inducement to work but the lash ; 
aud as man never acts without motive, the lash must be used 
so long tis all other motives are withheld. Hence corporal 
punishment is a necessary part of slavery/' 

Extract from the testimony of the Rev. Phineas Smith. 

" I will relate a case of torture which occurred on the 
Brassos, while I resided a few miles distant upon the Choco- 
late Bayou. The case should be remembered as a true 



65 

illustration of the nature of slavery, as it exists at the south. 
The facts are — An overseer by the name of Alexander, 
notorious for his cruelty, was found dead in the timbered 
lands of the Brassos. It was supposed that he was mur- 
i dered, but who perpetrated the act was unknown. Two 
black men were, however,, seized, taken into the prairie, and 
put to the torture. A physician by the name of Parrot, 
from Tennessee, and another from New England by the 
name of Anson Jones, were present on this occasion. The 
latter gentleman is now the Texan Minister Plenipotentiary 
I to the United States, and resides at Washington, The un- 
, fortunate slaves being stripped, and all things arranged, the 
; torture commenced by whipping upon their bare backs. Six 
athletic men were employed in this scene of inhumanity, the 
names of some of whom I well remember. There was one 
of the name of Brown, and one or two of the name of 
Patton. Those six executioners were successively employed 
in cutting up the bodies of these defenceless slaves, who 
persisted to the last in the avowal of their innocence. The 
bloody whip was, however, kept in motion till savage bar- 
barity itself was glutted. When this was accomplished, the 
bleeding victims were reconveyed to the inclosure of the 
mansion house, where they were deposited for a few moments; 
the dying groans, however, incommoding the ladies, they were 
takento a back shed, where one of them soon expired. The 
life of the other slave was somewhat despaired of; but, after 
hanging over the grave for months, he at length so far re- 
covered as to walk about, and labour at light work. These 
facts cannot be controverted. They were disclosed under the 
solemnity of an oath, at Columbia, in a court of justice. I 
was present, and never shall forget them. 

" Another case," continues the same author, " occurred 
on the San Bernard, near Chance Prairie, where I resided 
for some time. The facts were these. A slave man fled 
from his master (Mr. Sweeny), and being closely pursued by 
the overseer and a son of the owner, he stepped a few yards 
in the Bernard, and placed himself upon a root, from which 
there was no possibility of escape, for he could not swim. 
In this situation he was fired upon with a blunderbuss loaded 
heavily with ball and grape shot. The overseer, who was at 
a distance of a few feet only, shot the gun. The charge 
enter the body of the negro near the groin. He was con- 



66 



veyed to the plantation, lingered in inexpressible agony a 
few days, and expired. A physician was called, but medical 
and surgical skill was unavailing. No notice whatever was 
taken of this murder by the public authorities, and the mur- 
derer was not discharged from the service of his master." 

Extract of a letter to Arthur Tappan, Esq., of New 
York, from a gentleman of undoubted veracity, but whose 
name has been withheld for personal safety. 

" At length 1 arrived at the dwelling of a planter of mv 
acquaintance, with whom I passed the night. At about 
eight o'clock in the evening I heard the barking of several 
dogs, mingled with the most agonizing cries that I ever 
heard from any human beings. Soon after the gentleman 
came in, and began to apologise, by saying that two of his 
runaway slaves had just been brought home ; and as he had 
previously tried every species of punishment upon them 
without effect, he knew not what else to add, except to set 
his bloodhounds upon them. ' And,' continued he, 1 one of 
them has been so badly bitten that he had been trying to 
die. I am only sorry that he did not, for then I should not 
have been further troubled with him. If he lives, I intend 
to send him to Natches or to New Orleans, to work with the 
ball and chain.' " 

SLAVERY SUPPORTED BY THE CHURCH IN THE 
SOUTHERN STATES. 

Here follows an extract from the testimony of the Rev. 
George Bourne, of New York city, late editor of the 
"Protestant Vindicator." 

"John Baxter, a Presbyterian elder, the brother of that 
slaveholding doctor in divinity, George A. Baxter, held as a 
slave the wife of a Baptist coloured preacher, familiarly, 
* uncle Jack/ In a late period of pregnancy he scourged 
her so that the lives of herself and unborn child were con- 
sidered in jeopardy. Uncle Jack was advised to obtain the 
liberation of his wife. Baxter finally agreed, I think, to sell 
the woman, and her children, three of them, I believe, for 
six hundred dollars, and an additional hundred if the unborn 
child survived a certain period after its birth. Uncle Jack 
was advised to pay one hundred dollars per annum for his 
wife and children for seven years, and Baxter held a sort of 



67 



1 mortgage upon them for the payment. Uncle Jack was then 
I induced to show me his back in furrows like a ploughed 
field. His master used to whip up the flesh, then beat it 
; downwards, and then apply the ' negro plaster,' salt,, pepper, 
! mustard,, and vinegar, until all Jack's back was almost as 
hard and unimpressible as the bones. There is siaveholding 
religion ! A Presbyterian clergyman or elder receiving from 
a Baptist preacher seven hundred dollars for his wife and 
children." 

I shall here present to the reader a vice versa case of a 
I Baptist clergyman who was a slaveholder, in order to show 
I the deplorable state of religion in these regions of infamv, 
; and to prove that the principles of slavery are nourished in 
the pulpit, in place of the charitable doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. The testimony is from Mr. Joel S. Bingham, of 
Cornwall^ Vermont, lately a student in Middlebury College, 
and a. member of the Congregational church. 

" Rev. Mr. Lewis, a Baptist minister in the vicinity of 
Frankfort, Kentucky, had a slave that ran away, but was re- 
taken and brought back to his master, who threatened him 
with punishment for making an attempt to escape. Though 
terrified, the slave immediately attempted to run away again. 
Mr. Lewis commanded him to stop, but he did not obey. 
Mr. Lewis then took a gun loaded with small shot and fired 
at the slave, who fell ; but was not killed. 

Notwithstanding the personal rights and earthly comfort, 
of which the slaves are so barbarously deprived, there is 
something else which they cannot obtain, and which militates 
more against Christianity. The slaves know as well as their 
masters, that they must die some day, and that there is an 
eternity whence they can never return. However ignorant 
and degraded they have their share of common sense, which 
tells them that there is an infinite Being, to whom they must 
render an account of their words, deeds, and thoughts. To 
prepare themselves for the awful day of judgment, they are 
even prohibited from perusing or having even in their pos- 
session^ that word of consolation, the Bible, as we shall now 
see. 

Let us now for a moment attend to the testimony of Mr. 
Hiram White, a native of North Carolina, where he re- 
sided for thirty-two years, and was a member of the Baptist 
church. 



68 



" About the 20th of December, 1830, a report was raised 
that the slaves in Chatham county, North Carolina, were 
going to rise on Christmas day, in consequence of which, a 
considerable commotion ensued among the inhabitants ; 
orders were given by the governor to the militia captains, to 
appoint patrolling captains in each district, and orders were 
given for every man subject to military duty, to patrol as 
their captains should direct. I went two nights in succes- 
sion, and after that refused to patrol at all. The reason why 
I refused was this, orders were given to search every negroes' 
house for books or prints of any kind, and Bibles and hymn- 
books were particularly mentioned, and should we find any, 
our orders were to inflict punishment by whipping the slave 
until he informed who gave them to him, or how they came 
by them." 

The murder of a slave by a Presbyterian minister, his 
master, according to the testimony of the Rev. Francis 
Hawley, of Connecticut. 

" I will now give a few facts, showing the workings of the 
system. Some years since, a Presbyterian minister moved 
from North Carolina to Georgia. He had a negro man of 
an uncommon mind. For some cause, I know not what, 
this minister whipped him most unmercifully. He next 
nearly drowned him ; he then put him in the fence ; this is 
done by lifting up the corner of a ' worm fence,' and then 
putting the feet through, the rails serve as stocks. He kept 
him there some time, how long I was not informed, but the 
poor slave died in a few days, and if I am rightly informed, 
nothing was done about it, either in church or state. After 
some time he moved back to North Carolina, and is now a 
member of the presbytery. I have heard him preach, and 
have been in the pulpit with him. May God forgive me ! 



These cruelties and barbarities which have been presented 
to the reader, are a mere trifle in comparison to all the enor- 
mities which are daily perpetrated and inflicted on slaves ; 
they may, however, * afford some idea of the atrocities of 
American slavery. 



J. H ADDON, PRINTER, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY. 




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